ATLANTA — Variety is the spice of life.
The Mets want Rafael Montero taking that message to heart as he continues his transformation from starting pitcher to potential bullpen stopper.
The right-hander regularly was in the 94-95 mph range with his fastball Friday night, but that alone won’t beat major league hitters.
“I don’t care what the name on the back says, these are big league hitters,” manager Terry Collins said before the Mets’ 5-3 loss to the Braves on Saturday. “You can’t throw all those fastballs right in a row without them all of a sudden getting engaged. They have got to see an offspeed pitch.”
Montero may have learned a hard lesson on Friday, when he threw 35 straight fastballs against the Braves and watched Phil Gosselin deliver a go-ahead, two-run single with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of the Mets’ loss — also 5-3.
Montero’s pitch selection was a big topic of conversation in a discussion.
“What bothered me was [Montero] did not use his two-seam fastball, he did not use his changeup, which have both been huge pitches for him all the way along,” pitching coach Dan Warthen said. “He has to learn to shake off and call his own pitches. He will mature. He will get better.”
Catcher Travis d’Arnaud took the blame for the pitch selection.
“It all falls on me,” d’Arnaud said. “I will take full responsibility for that.”
But Warthen exonerated d’Arnaud, despite the fact Montero didn’t shake off the catcher once.
“The pitcher has the ball in his hand and he makes the call,” Warthen said. “I think [Friday] might be a great life lesson. [Montero] certainly could have been out of that inning easily anyway, but that is just a good learning lesson.”
Ruben Tejada and Antony Recker will both start on Sunday, according to Collins, as part of scheduled days off for shortstop Wilmer Flores and d’Arnaud, who drove in his fifth run of the season on a seventh-inning hit by pitch.
A day after Flores made two throwing errors, Collins said it was too early for the Mets to be concerned about the shortstop position.
“If he starts hitting like he can, we won’t talk too much about his throws,” Collins said.
Flores didn’t make an error Saturday, but with the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh, he grounded into a rally-killing double play.
