HOUSTON -- Two games into the season, we have gathered some data on how Mets manager Carlos Mendoza will approach game strategy with his new roster.Friday’s 3-1 win over Houston allowed Mendoza his first opportunity to deploy his current group of high-leverage relievers. He chose to bring in Reed Garrett to bail Tylor Megill out of a jam in the sixth, new acquisition A.
J. Minter in the seventh, Ryne Stanek in the eighth and Edwin Diaz in the ninth.All were effective, but that order of relievers was not what we will see every time the Mets are protecting a tight lead in the early part of the season.
-- Mendoza said he is still tinkering with when to use Minter, Stanek and Garrett in the eighth versus the seventh.“There’s going to be a combination,” the manager said. “[It will depend on] who is available, who is coming up.
”When Mendoza served as Aaron Boone’s bench coach with the Yankees, the coaching staff would meet before the game to determine the best “lanes,” as they called them, for each reliever against the night’s opposing lineup.The Mets’ approach under Mendoza sounds similar. They will look every day at data that cuts deeper than handedness and prior history, like how a given pitcher’s stuff plays against an opponent’s swing.
They will consider which pitchers are most capable that night of contributing length, among many other factors that will determine the ideal situation for each.-- You’ll see Diaz at some point in the spot that Stanek fa.
