Jenrry Mejia didn’t get to the sixth inning as manager Terry Collins had hoped. And, the 85-pitch count limit didn’t really matter. Mejia couldn’t get out of the fourth, but not for lack of trying.

“After the first inning, you hope he settles down at little bit,” Collins said. “But, I’m sure he was pretty excited. His command was off. That’s going to be something we certainly have to make sure is first and foremost.”

Kelly Shoppach caught Mejia and thought that pitching for the first time in two years and coming back off Tommy John surgery, the 22-year-old right-hander would naturally be excited.
“We’ve all been there,” Shoppach said. “We tried to say encouraging things to help calm him down, but that’s a tough place to be out there on the mound by yourself. Hopefully, he’ll learn from it. He’ll be better next time out there. He’s got good stuff. (He’s) just got to calm down and get in the zone more.”

Collins saw some positives, though.

“I thought his stuff was good,” he said. “His breaking ball has improved since the last time I saw him. (He) still has to find something that gets him off the fastball a little bit.”
Where can he improve?

“It’s tough to pitch up here behind in the count,” Collins said. “I didn’t see the cutter I remember him having. It looked like it was pretty straight.”

Mejia’s First RBI on Sacrifice Bunt: Jenrry Mejia dropped down the perfect sacrifice bunt on a suicide squeeze in the fourth inning. It was his first career RBI.

Catcher Kelly Shoppach hoped the Mejia be happy with that highlight.

“I would love for guys to take it that way, but I’m sure they don’t,” Shoppach said. “They’re here to pitch. They won’t take it as ‘Hey, I just knocked in a run there.’ He won’t ever knock in his first run again. That’s a pretty cool moment, knocking in a run. He was excited about it.”