Here are the only statistics that matter: 73 pitches, 41 for strikes, zero pain and one big meal for his Cyclone teammates.
That was the linescore for injured Met starter Oliver Perez’s five innings of nearly perfect pitching for the Clones on Sunday night, when Perez joined the team as part of his rehabilitation back to the majors.
Cyclone pitchers hoped to get some real face time with the sporadically brilliant lefty, but like most rehabbing major leaguers, Perez showed up just before game time, warmed up and did his job — striking out six and walking only one in five solid innings.
But after the game, Perez followed another important Cyclone tradition: the Met millionaire treated his Class-A teammates to a post-game dinner at Gargiulo’s, across the street from Keyspan Park.
And the pitching staff appreciated having him around.
“He’s a cool guy. Completely normal,” said reliever Erik Turgeon. “He got along with the team great, gave us confidence. He never tried to tell us how to do our jobs. Just talked to us normally, about fishing, food. Normal conversation.”
Coach Joel Fuentes echoed Turgeon and other pitchers’ comments that Perez was no show-off during his trip to the lowest level of professional baseball.
“He was supportive of the team like no other person — an unbelievable guy,” Fuentes said. “Always confident, and you need that on a team, especially with young kids. He didn’t teach them any pitching tricks, but he showed them how a big leaguer acts — and that’s more important.”
Perez was pretty pleased with his hour in a Cyclone uniform.
“I’m really happy,” Perez told reporters after the game, saying that his knee “felt 100 percent.”
“I’m excited to get [back to the majors] and be with my team, and try to help them and do what I have to do.”
That’s something Met fans need to hear right now. The team has been so decimated by injuries that it can’t get any momentum.
But a major league team’s loss is a minor-league squad’s gain. Other Mets are expected to make rehab starts soon for the Cyclones — not that a team that’s batting nearly .300 and has a league-leading staff earned run average of 1.72 needs any help.
“They could tell me that I’ve got [Jose] Reyes tomorrow,” said Pedro Lopez, manager of the 9–2 Cyclones. “And I’d say, ‘That’s great, but I might not start him because [Luis] Nieves is playing so well.’”
