Mets' Paul Blackburn excited (and already nervous) about first start since August
Paul Blackburn has missed time with a bruised right hand, spinal fluid leak in his back, and a swollen right knee. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
Paul Blackburn will return to the mound on Monday in Los Angeles when the Mets open a four-game series with a Dodgers club that ousted them in the National League Championship Series en route to winning the 2024 World Series.
It will be his first game since Aug. 23, 2024, and one that, at times, he thought might never happen.
“I’m very excited about it because there was a period of uncertainty where we didn’t know if I was ever going to throw again,” Blackburn told Newsday before the Mets hosted the Rockies on Saturday. “There was one little injury and then a bunch of things kept popping up and it got to a place where I wasn’t sure what would come next. But now, having the chance again to pitch in the big leagues, I can’t wait.”
The righthander was hit on his pitching hand with a batted ball in his last game and ended up on the injured list. But in his comeback, he had back issues that wouldn’t clear up. After extensive injuries, doctors found that he was leaking cerebral spinal fluid from his spinal cord through a puncture at the top of his lumbar region.
Blackburn had surgery in September in which bone spurs on the interior of one of his vertebrae was shaved down, allowing the leak to heal. He came to spring training looking for a normal season but suffered knee inflammation shortly before Opening Day and has been on the IL since the start of the season.
Blackburn has been on a minor-league rehab assignment, has recorded a 3.68 ERA in 29 1/3 innings and has been built up to the point that he could throw 100 pitches on Monday.
After Friday night’s win over the Rockies, he got home in time to watch the Dodgers’ lineup perform in their 8-5 win over the Yankees in Los Angeles, a win in which Yankees ace Max Fried was charged with six runs.
“They have a lot of good hitters in that lineup — three MVPs — so it will be a really good challenge,'' Blackburn said, "but I am ready to trust my stuff.”
Just watching the Dodgers play stirred up some things Blackburn hadn’t felt in some time.
“It's kind of crazy, but I started feeling a little bit of the nerves and excitement just watching that game,” he said. “I got back all those feelings you forget about when you’re not playing. They are good feelings and I’m glad to have them again.”
Diaz feeling sharp. When Edwin Diaz struck out the side in the ninth inning of Friday’s win over Colorado, it made him 12-for-12 on save opportunities and extended his run of at-bats without allowing a hit to 30. Diaz, Houston’s Josh Hader (14) and the Angels’ Kenley Jansen (11) are the only other pitchers with more than 10 saves and no blown saves.
“The main thing for me right now is just getting after hitters [and] throwing strike one,” he said. “My body is feeling good, my mechanics are locked in and I feel great . . . like I can throw the ball wherever I want.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
