Capuano finds less thinking is the answer

Two off-days -- at least two -- mandated by Hurricane Irene leave the Mets extra time to ponder how simple the game can be at times after Chris Capuano's 6-0 shutout of the Atlanta Braves Friday night.

"We all can be a little controlling in our lives at times,'' said Capuano, at 33 trying to piece his career back together after two Tommy John surgeries. "There are times when you try to be the pitching coach and catcher and pitcher and still execute pitches. It's just a lot of things to try to do.''

So, in his first start since allowing a season-high seven runs in 52/3 innings against Milwaukee, Capuano decided, "You do have to let go of some of that control and trust your catcher and just go with him sometimes.''

Capuano resolved to allow catcher Josh Thole to call the pitches, to concentrate on throwing whatever Thole ordered, and the result was a two-hitter with a career-high 13 strikeouts that Capuano said "has to be'' his best performance in an often frustrating big-league journey not unlike the Mets' current 62-68 season.

Originally drafted by Arizona, Capuano once went 26 games without a victory during his time with Milwaukee. He missed all of the 2009 and 2010 seasons before being signed by the Mets on the rebound. Friday's complete game was his first since 2005.

"There certainly were times when I felt frustrated, like I was banging my head against the wall a little bit,'' he said. "But I always said I'd give it every opportunity before I turned to something else, because I can't imagine doing anything more fun than this.''

Capuano doesn't throw especially hard, but Atlanta's hitters couldn't find his breaking balls Friday. He allowed only a broken-bat single by Dan Uggla to lead off the fifth inning and David Ross' double with two outs in the eighth inning that might have been caught by a more experienced rightfielder than Lucas Duda.

Being allowed by manager Terry Collins to pitch the ninth inning, and striking out the last two Atlanta batters, was "exhilarating,'' Capuano said.

He needed 122 pitches to finish his business, but "I purposely kept not looking at how many pitches I was throwing because I didn't want to have that in my head,'' Capuano said. "There were not too many innings I had to labor through, so a game like that, it's not as taxing.''

Thole acknowledged that pitchers sometimes hesitate to trust a catcher's pitch preference, but he and Capuano talked before the game about "getting in a rhythm and just kind of go with the flow,'' Thole said. "I told him, 'We got to just trust what we see.'

"Sometimes you're not on the same page; you're really not sure what to throw. But the first two innings, we got into a good feel, good tempo.''

Capuano consciously tried to force himself "to hit my spots and try not to think, not get ahead of myself, stay in the moment and take it one pitch at a time. I'm trying to not think as much out there, because that's when doubts start creeping in.

"The last game, I was really over-thinking, shaking Ronny [Paulino] off a lot. We had a really good talk on the bus after the game, and I just said, 'You know what? I have to trust you guys, relax and worry about making pitches.' ''

Simple.