Fireworks, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra performance needed to captivate near sellout crowd after Herd falls meekly to Red Wings
Bisons can't lower the boom, get beaten by Rochester on BPO night
Erratic Perez unable to silence Red Wings
Oliver Perez was smiling and happy Friday night. He pronounced himself ready to rejoin the New York Mets if they pull the trigger on a recall so he can face the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night in Citi Field.
But seriously now, if Perez can't throw more strikes than balls and can't beat the Rochester Red Wings, can he really be expected to be ready to face Manny Being Manny and all his friends?
That's the dilemma the Mets face today after Perez's uneven outing in the Buffalo Bisons' 6-2 loss to the Wings before a season-high crowd of 17,380.
Perez's injured knee appears fine. His velocity was good, consistently at 90-91 mph and topping at 93. But he just doesn't throw enough strikes. He threw 92 pitches in five-plus innings and only 46 were strikes. He walked four and went to three-ball counts on five other hitters.
Hardly seems big-league ready. But asked about the balls-strikes ratio, Perez was unfazed.
"The more important thing is I'm feeling real good and I'm not thinking about my knee," he said. "I was feeling really strong. I think I'm ready. I was a little wild but more important I feel strong."
"His command was there and gone at times but that's Ollie," said manager Ken Oberkfell. "Ollie can pitch that way. He'll get himself in trouble but he'll find a way to get himself out of trouble."
Rochester native Tim Redding went just 2 1/3 innings Thursday at Pittsburgh, his shortest outing in nearly two years, and his spot in the Mets' rotation looks to be in jeopardy. The Mets figured Perez would reach out and grab it but you wonder now.
"That's not my decision," Perez said. "I threw almost 100 pitches and I'm ready to go but I don't know what they're going to decide. You tell me to go tomorrow, I'm ready to go tomorrow."
Perez wriggled in and out of trouble and had a 1-0 lead until Matt Macri's solo home run in the fifth. He was gone after giving up back-to-back doubles leading off the sixth to Justin Huber and Danny Valencia.
He tried to convince Oberkfell to let him face one more hitter but the manager would have none of it. Perez popped the ball in his glove before turning it over to the skipper and walking to the dugout, doffing his cap to the crowd as he left.
Kyle Snyder gave up David Winfree's RBI single, leaving Perez's final line at five-plus innings, three runs on five hits, four strikeouts and four walks.
"Today the key was not thinking about the knee but thinking about a real game," Perez said. "I tried to feel the pressure and make it feel like a big league game. I feel really good. I showed emotion because I don't like to lose."
Other than Perez's update, there's not much new to report on this one. The first-timers in the big crowd saw the same brand of mind-numbing baseball regulars have been watching this team produce since April. Good thing they had the postgame Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra concert and fireworks show to look forward to.
The Bisons are 26-50, the worst record in Triple-A, and have dropped five straight. They are 7-26 in their division, just 2-15 at home.
And there's more. The Bisons are 14-31 at home overall — the most home losses in professional baseball, majors or minors. They have scored three or fewer runs in 26 of those 45 games.
Rochester right-hander Jeff Manship, making his first Triple-A start, scattered five hits in seven innings. And he's not making $12 million this year like Perez.
"He kept the ball out of the middle of the plate, located well and had a nice little slider at times," Oberkfell said. "But our hitters were overanxious up there swinging at pitches we shouldn't swing at and giving away at-bats. That's what's discouraging.
"You get a guy like that just up from Double-A and he basically stuck it up our rear ends. I give him credit but I give my offense "not credit.'"
The Bisons took a 1-0 lead on Cory Sullivan's RBI infield single in the third but didn't do anything else until the ninth, when Michel Abreu drove in another run with a single to center.
The teams meet four times over the next three days in Rochester's Frontier Field. The opener is at 7 tonight (TWC 13, Radio 1520 AM) with right-hander Nelson Figueroa making the start for the Herd.
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