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Oliver Perez was always told he could pitch as effectively as he has this season for the Mets. He can spit it out by rote: He had great stuff, he still was young, he'd known fleeting success in the major leagues before.
Yet if you ask Perez what was holding him back when the Pirates gave up on him last season and sent him to the Mets as a throw-in in the Xavier Nady deal, Perez's face clouds over and he says: "I was losing my mind. Seriously."
Which made him an even better fit with Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson than some of the other Mets.
"They all think I'm whacked out, too," jokes Peterson, whose interests range from eastern philosophy to yoga, dipping snuff to energy crystals to good kharma rings. In his uniform back pocket, Peterson carries a black book that details his holistic, highly systemized approach to coaching pitchers. Reaching in his windbreaker pocket, he pulls out a small drawstring bag filled with some talismans he carries around for good luck.
Some of his sayings to pitchers who forget the game plan or try to be someone they're not are classics.
"If we call down the bullpen and order Italian," Peterson told one guy, "we don't want you bringing egg rolls in here."
It's rare when a defeat like the loss that Perez took yesterday reminds you how remarkable the Mets' pitching staff has been this season. But in so many ways, yesterday's 4-1 loss to the Diamondbacks did.
Neither Perez nor the rest of the Mets' lineup did anything particularly horrible. Perez actually no-hit Arizona through the first four innings and scattered four hits in his seven innings. But Arizona made him pay for two leadoff walks he gave up in the fifth and the sixth by scoring three runs, and the Mets stranded eight runners. "It happens," Perez said.
That it happened for the second time in three nights makes you wonder if it could become a trend, with division rival Philadelphia looming just ahead. The Mets' shorthanded lineup had the sort of meek offensive game yesterday that reminds you how small their margin of error is right now if they don't get a suffocating pitching performance. Carlos Delgado's three strikeouts particularly hurt.
Early this season, the Mets were able to overcome the absences of Pedro Martinez, Orlando Hernandez and two of last season's bullpen mainstays - Guillermo Mota and Duaner Sanchez - because it seemed as if everyone whom general manager Omar Minaya brought in and Peterson touched turned to gold.
But now that the Mets have more challenges heaped on top of that - they're missing their entire starting outfield and second baseman Jose Valentin - they'll need their pitching to be even better, if that's possible for a staff that's already sitting second in the National League in ERA and first in opponent's batting average.
When Minaya was asked the other day if he takes chances on certain pitchers only because Peterson is on the Mets' staff, he quickly answered: "Definitely. The work he does with everyone is impressive. And every year, it seems Pete always has one reclamation project. A few years ago, it was Roberto Hernandez. Last year, it was Oliver Perez."
This year, it's Braves and Cardinals cast-off Jorge Sosa, Saturday's winner for the Mets.
The success stories on the Mets' pitching staff have been so numerous, it's impossible to argue that Peterson isn't a major influence. Future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine was struggling before committing to the overhauled approach Peterson talked him into a few years ago. Now he's near his 300th win. Aaron Heilman has benefited by dropping his arm slot. Peterson has helped John Maine continue to blossom, he's presided over closer Billy Wagner's current streak of 30 straight saves, and he's helped sidearming rookie Joe Smith slide smoothly into the important relief role that Sanchez and Mota used to own.
Five pitchers who were consulted for this story all raved about Peterson's ability to pinpoint and fix mechanical flaws in their deliveries, often nipping problems before they happen in games.
Peterson's many enthusiasms are sometimes New Age or quirky enough that not everyone immediately jumps on board. San Francisco pitcher Barry Zito says that when he and Peterson worked together in Oakland, "Some guys would complain he's soft-spoken, he's not macho enough. But Rick doesn't buy into that old-school, masculinity BS. He's very right-brained. A sort of Renaissance guy."
Even Wagner, who counts himself a big Peterson fan, laughs and says, "What I like is he's right so much, and he gives you so much proof with stats and things that he starts to make you believe in you.
"Now we still have times he says something and I'll tell him, 'Awww, you're full of crap!' Then I get home and I start thinking and I just go, 'Aw, --.'
"He was right."
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