St. Lucie's Fulmer survives, then thrives

An injury threw Michael Fulmer for a curve in February. Now in August, he's throwing curves to batters.

The Mets' No. 12 prospect struck out a season-high eight batters and allowed a run on two hits over six innings as Class A Advanced St. Lucie defeated Palm Beach, 8-4, on Monday.

Fulmer struggled through a rocky first inning, hitting Alex Mejia with one out in the frame, walking Jacob Wilson and allowing a two-out RBI single to Cardinals' No. 19 prospect Patrick Wisdom. Opening up the game that way isn't unusual for the Oklahoma native, who has an ERA of 9.00 in the first inning and a 2.59 ERA in the ensuing frames this year.

"The first inning is always rocky for me," Fulmer said. "My teammates tell me that if I can just get out of the first inning of every start or just bypass it, I'd be the best pitcher in the league. I feel like I just need to do a better job of preperation before the start of the game. I think that I'm not doing a very good job of getting my routine down."

Fulmer settled in, not allowing another hit until Wilson doubled to lead off the sixth. The 20-year-old right-hander walked four en route to his second win with the Mets.

"I think the slider and the changeup were both working really well," he said. "Especially the changeup, I've been working on the changeup for over a year. That's been my main goal since coming back and I think it's been doing well for me."

Fulmer is making just his sixth Florida State League start and eighth overall after suffering a torn meniscus in Spring Training. Coming off a year in which he was 7-6 with a 2.74 ERA in 21 starts for Class A Savannah, the injury was devastating for the 2011 first-round pick.

"It kind of set me back, I was depressed about it," Fulmer said. "But I took it in a positive way and just kind of tried to find a negative and turn it into a positive."

The 6-foot-3 hurler is 2-2 with a 3.82 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 30 2/3 innings for the Mets. Fulmer has limited Florida State League hitters to a .200 batting average, a number owed in part to the return of his fourth pitch, a curveball. While it's seen limited use, it's been useful in keeping hitters off balance.

"I kind of got rid of it last year to start working on the changeup more," he said. "This year I'm trying to bring it back. I think it's a good pitch for me, it throws them for a loop. It's a pitch that, in a 0-0 count or a 0-1 count, it'll freeze a hitter because who wants to swing at a breaking pitch early in the count. It really does a good job of slowing the hitter's bat down and makes the fastball look more explosive."

St. Lucie's Angel Cuan allowed three runs on six hits in one inning of relief and Bret Mitchell tossed two one-hit frames to close out the game.

T.J. Rivera was 3-for-3 with a homer and four RBIs while Kyle Johnson went yard and plated two runs. Matt Reynolds was 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored for the Mets.

Wisdom collected two hits, including a double, and scored a run while Wilson reached base four times for the Cardinals.