41-year old Bartolo Colon is perfect through 6 2/3 innings vs. M’s
Well, Bartolo Colon proved that at 41-years old he can still dominate despite giving up two runs in the eighth inning. Colon retired the first 20 batters in the game, staying perfect through 6 2/3 innings. The first hit he gave up was a single to left to Robinson Cano with two outs in the seventh.
Unfortunately for Colon and the New York Mets things started to unravel in the bottom of eighth inning. To lead off the inning Colon walked Corey Hart. He managed to get Logan Morrison to fly out for the first out of the inning but gave up a single to Dustin Ackley and a run-scoring double to Brad Miller. The inning didn’t get much better for the Mets as Jeurys Familia replaced Colon who had thrown just over one-hundred pitches.
Familia got pinch-hitter Willie Bloomquist to ground out to short that allowed Ackley to score. He then struck out Endy Chavez to end the inning. The Mets were still able to hang on to their 3-2 lead eventually defeating Seattle by that same score.
Still the story of this game had to be Bartolo Colon who faced the first 20 men to come to the plate and retired them all, striking out five of them. He threw 101 pitches, 69 of them for strikes. He gave up two runs on three hits and walked one in 8 2/3 innings.
The Mets have been looking to trade Colon before the July 31 trade deadline but so far with no luck. Colon, who signed a two-year $20 million contract as a free agent over the off-season, might changed that by turning a few heads with his performance Wednesday.
Prior to Wednesday’s start the problem with trading Colon was that his new team would have to take on the remainder of Colon’s contract. Ten-million is a lot for one year for a guy who will be turning 42 in 2015. However, in 2013 at the age of 40 Colon finished second in the American League in both wins (18) and ERA (2.65), which is pretty unbelievable. Colon’s numbers haven’t been as good with the Mets this season but he also hasn’t had the same kind of team he had behind him in 2013 with the Oakland Athletics. He is 8-8 with a 4.12 ERA in 19 starts with the Mets.
With quite a few teams still looking for starting pitching and not a lot of high value talent on the market besides the Rays’ David Price and maybe the Phillies’ Cliff Lee, some teams might consider taking on the veteran for the remainder of this season and in 2015.