Mets' Edwin Diaz takes 'step in the right direction' in return to mound

After Edwin Diaz’s lousy week that saw him surrender seven runs in 2.1 innings, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza moved the closer out of his normal role to allow him to re-set and regain some lost confidence.

On Friday night at Citi Field, Diaz made his first appearance in six days and the first in his new role: pitching in the seventh inning with the Mets ahead by three. And after working a scoreless frame with two swinging strikeouts – one on the slider and one on a fastball – it showed Diaz’s hard work put in during his time out, may have paid off.

“Yeah, I feel really good. I’ve been working a lot the last couple days,” Diaz said after the Mets’ 8-7 loss to the San Francisco Giants. “I was able to command my glove side fastball, my slider down and away, I was pretty good today.”

Diaz said that if he can throw his fastball down and away to right-handed batters and down and in against lefties – and his slider in the same spot – he will be back to having good results. In the seventh, he needed just 14 pitches to get three outs (allowing one hit), with six whiffs and four called strikes in the process.

Before the game, the manager highlighted the work the reliever did the last few days, despite not appearing during the series against the Guardians.

“During that series in Cleveland, he got on the mound and threw a lot of pitches before the game,” Mendoza said. “He was working on some of the things he felt like he needed to be working on. And, look, at the end of the day, for us to get to where we wanna get we need Edwin Diaz to be at his best. I’m pretty confident he will get there.

“He’s just going through a stretch here when it wasn’t easy for him, but I’m pretty confident that we’ll get him back to himself.”

When Diaz was throwing his pre-game bullpens in Cleveland – which included Francisco Lindor stepping in to mimic a batter – Mendoza said the issue wasn’t necessarily mechanical for him, but about conviction.

“Pitching with conviction and trusting his pitches. Don’t try to be too fine or too perfect, guiding the baseball. Just having conviction,” he said earlier Friday. “This is part of the thing when you’re going through it mentally that get away from that. And that’s what it comes down to.

“Some of the things that we talked to him while he was throwing those bullpens in Cleveland, ‘just throw the baseball.’ ‘Your stuffs playing.’ ‘Just make sure you trust it.’ I know it sounds easy for me, but this is too good of a pitcher for this to continue.”

After the outing, Mendoza called it “a good step in the right direction for him” and called the conviction he threw with “a good sign.”

While Diaz felt his stuff was “really good” in his return to the mound, he isn’t letting one outing change the process that got him there even though he felt closer to the 2022 version of himself.

“I gotta keep working. I think today was way better outing than my best one here this season,” he said. “I was able to do whatever I want in the mound, I was able to stay calm, make pitches. I feel really good. I just have to continue doing what I did today and I will be good.”

As far as getting Diaz back into the closer role, Mendoza said before the game it might “happen spontaneously” and depending on need, but they will continue to have conversations with the closer day by day.

“We’re gonna need Edwin Diaz to be Edwin Diaz,” he added, “pretty confident that he’ll get there, but for the time being, it might happen today, tomorrow. We’ll continue to communicate with him and present him some of the scenarios, but as the game unfolds, you have to manage the game and make that adjustment as you move on throughout the game.”

Mendoza said he liked what he saw on Friday night, but they will still be piecing the bullpen together and mixing and matching for the time being.

“That’s what it comes down to, the confidence of Edwin and when he’s right, he’s pretty nasty,” he said.

Before the game, the manager said it would continue to be a balancing act on not waiting too long to get Diaz back into his familiar role.

“You don’t want to get too far out without him getting the opportunity to close a game out, that’s who he is, our closer,” Mendoza said. “He’s just going through it right now, especially from the mental side of things. But it’s one of those where he goes out there and pitches today, but maybe we have to piece it together and we gotta give him the ball in the ninth.

“And pretty confident he’s in a really good spot now after working really hard in Cleveland – even though he didn’t get in the game – he was throwing a lot and we do feel good where he’s at.”

For Diaz, he’ll be ready.

“Whatever I did today, I have to keep doing it every single day,” he said. “If they give me the ball tomorrow in the ninth, I will be ready.”