Mets pitching coach addresses lone rotation shortcoming

However, despite how well New York's starting pitchers have been, they haven't been great in one regard: going late in games. Entering their April 11 contest, Mets starters have averaged 4.2 innings per outing.

While this isn't a great stat, Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner conveyed why he isn't overly concerned about it in an April 12 article from Mike Puma of the New York Post.

"I wish we could have mixed in a sixth inning here and there for our starters, but the 4.2 [innings] are tough sometimes because that is going to put more pressure on the bullpen,” Hefner said. “But that is kind of the expectation these first few go-arounds, where normally you might give them those extra batters to push them above 90 [pitches] or closer to 100. But we have won, and we have put the team in a position to win games, and that’s what we are after.”

Hefner later added, "As the season goes along, we will make the determination when to push farther. It could be next time through the rotation, it could be a few more starts down the road, but it just felt like how well our bullpen has been pitching and there was an opportunity to get [starters] out at a lower pitch count with the extra rest, we just felt that was kind of best to both win the game and for health for the starters.”

Perhaps scheduled starter David Peterson can give New York's bullpen a brief respite during Saturday's game against the Athletics.