Mets' Gonzalez flirts with perfection

It's been a wacky couple of days to be on the mound for the Rookie-level Kingsport Mets. But Sunday was almost perfect ... until it very much wasn't.

Harol Gonzalez took a perfect game into the ninth before Kingsport squandered a four-run lead and dropped an 8-7, 10-inning decision to Bluefield at Hunter Wright Stadium. 

Making his second stateside start after pitching for Kingsport on Opening Day, the 20-year-old right-hander retired the first 24 Blue Jays -- nine via the strikeout -- and required only 85 pitches to work his way through the line up 2 2/3 times. Based on what they saw out of his three-pitch mix, the Mets thought Gonzalez, who typically registers 89-92 mph on the gun with his heater, had a chance to be special Sunday.

"The first thing he was doing was locating his fastball very well," said Kingsport pitching coach Jonathan Hurst. "That's one thing we talked about early was getting the fastball and then using his changeup and split-finger in the right spots. In the first game, he was mostly using the splitter to get over for a strike. But we just worked on that and told him it should be a putaway pitch, and the changeup would work more off his fastball. Once he got that down, it was big."

Hurst also said he noticed a few more things than just Gonzalez's offerings as the game wore on. There was his delivery, which was much smoother than the "loosey goosey" windup he showed in extended spring training. There was still a little bit of the bend-over-and-pose that made the right-hander's delivery unique and able to hide the ball well, but it was cleaner than in previous outings. 

There was also the native of the Dominican Republic's composure, even as the zeros piled up and the pressure started to mount.

"It was almost like he never knew that there was a perfect game or anything," Hurst said. "He just kept going out, getting his outs. By the ninth, he was a little fatigued after the 85 pitches, but we decided he had 10-15 pitches left and wanted to see if he could secure it. ... He accomplished what he needed to out there."

Given a chance to close out the Appalachian League's first no-hitter of any kind since Aug. 11, 2009 -- when Danville's Cory Rasmus threw a seven-inning gem -- Gonzalez faltered in the ninth. He gave up a leadoff single to Mattingly Romanin, hit D.J. McKnight and was pulled. 

That's when things started to go downhill for the Mets. Gabriel Feliz surrendered five runs on six hits in the ninth. Gonzalez was charged with two runs on one hit in eight-plus frames and has a 3.07 ERA and 13 strikeouts without a walk over 14 2/3 innings in two Appy League starts.

RBIs by Luis Carpio and Leon Canelon and a passed ball enabled the Mets to force extra innings, but Chase Ingram (0-1) gave up a run on a hit and a walk in the 10th. 

With all that happened late, Hurst focused on the good, which on Sunday was his starter.

"He was definitely a positive," the pitching coach said. "Even in that ninth inning, he was still cheery, still smiling, because he knew he did everything to help win the ballgame, even though we lost."

The Mets gained national attention Friday night when a lineup error by manager Luis Rivera did not list any relievers, forcing Kingsport to use three position players -- Jose Figuera, Luis Ortega, Gregory Valencia -- on the mound in a 15-9 loss to the Blue Jays.