In yesterday's 4-3 win over the Marlins, R.A. Dickey pitched into the ninth inning and allowed two runs and six hits with two walks and four strikeouts.
Dickey improved to 19-6 and lowered his ERA to 2.66 for the season.
'There's not a guy in that room that's not rooting for R.A.,' Terry Collins said. 'We've got to figure out a way to score some runs on Thursday for him, because I think our fans deserve to see him win 20. ' The organization should be very proud of the fact that they stuck with this guy.'
With the four strikeouts, Dickey now leads the league with 209, has now thrown a league-high 220 innings, and his 2.66 ERA leads the league as well. His 19 wins are second behind Gio Gonzalez, but Dickey's winning percentage is 46 points higher than Gonzalez's:
Dickey became the fifth pitcher in franchise history to win 19 games, throw 220 innings and strikeout 200 or more in a single season. He joined Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Jerry Koosman and David Cone as the only other pitchers in franchise history to accomplish that feat.
'It is hard. You would see a lot of 20-game winners out there if it wasn't hard. A lot of things have to go your way, and I'll be the first to say it,' Dickey explained. 'I try to go out there and be consistent and that's all I try to do. I try to give my team a chance to win every time out, and this has been the product of that this year.'
Dickey improved to 5-0 with a 1.38 ERA in five starts against the Marlins this season. The five wins against the Marlins are the most any one pitcher has ever had against them in a single season.
'Last year, I was 8-13. I didn't change my perspective, change my mentality. It's just the way things have ended up this year, but it's fun.'
Michael Baron, MetsBlog.com
Dickey was spectacular again yesterday. As usual, Dickey had tremendous control of his knuckleball, throwing it for strikes nearly 69 percent of the time yesterday. He didn't have much vertical movement on his knuckleball, but he most certainly had wicked horizontal movement and, with the exception of Donovan Solano and Gil Velazquez, the Marlins looked clueless all afternoon. Dickey's ability to command that pitched helped him to work quickly and, when he did get into trouble, helped to get him out of several jams throughout the day.That command has been a consistent theme for him from the very beginning this year. As good as he has been since he joined the Mets in 2010, the command has never been as good as it's been in 2012. As good as Gio Gonzalez and Kyle Lohse have been, there shouldn't be much standing in the way of him and the National League Cy Young at this point. There has been nobody better in the game this year. Period.
Dickey's next start is on Thursday against the Pirates at Citi Field, the last home game for the Mets this season. Dickey's final start of the season will be on October 2 against the Marlins in Miami.
