Terry says he has 8 options in the bullpen as closer

Following the game, Terry Collins said Frank Francisco erupted on the home-plate umpire during the ninth inning because he thought pitches that were called balls should have been strikes.

“All strikes,” Francisco said after the game. “I threw one a little high, because he didn’t call one at the knees. I threw a straight fastball right there. He didn’t call anything. And then I went a little higher to see. And he didn’t call the higher one. There’s nothing you can do about that. It’s their call. I feel like I should say something.”

Collins said he is concerned about Francisco, who, as far as he knows is healthy. However, he’s equally concerned about other parts of the team, following two rough losses to close out the road trip.

“We’ll address it,” Collins said. “I have eight options,” he replied, when asked if he has other options in the bullpen to be his closer in place of Francisco. “But, I’m not going to address that right now, when emotions are running high.”

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Matthew Cerrone: I’ll say this, it’s refreshing to hear a manager acknowledge the situation, as opposed to acting like everything is great, as some previous managers did. Francisco looked good to start the year, then he was a mess. He did some work with Dan Warthen and made some adjustments and looked better. Now, he’s back to looking bad. Frankly, I was more concerned with how he came totally unglued emotionally today, in a spot where they instead needed him to focus and finish. The point is, like Ozzie Guillen recognized when he pulled Heath Bell from the closer’s role earlier this year, Terry needs to make a move now. Take the pressure off Frank, let him get right, assign the job to someone else (maybe Jon Rauch, who has been pitching well lately), and let the rest of the team shake this off and try to find new confidence in a different option out there.

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