After Jeurys Familia allowed a three run home run to Conor Gillaspie, he was booed off the mound at the end of the top of the ninth in the Wild Card Game.  From what I heard at Citi Field, and what I read in the comments section to my Mets Merized Online article, there is a significant portion of Mets fans that believe Familia is a choke artist.  There’s another group of fans that want the Mets to move Familia to the eighth inning and sign someone like Aroldis Chapman in free agency.

About that . . .

After two Cubs relievers allowed Brandon Belt and Buster Posey to get on to start the bottom of the eighth inning, Joe Maddon stopped messing around, and he brought in Chapman to get the six out save to propel the Cubs to the NLCS.  It would be the second time in Chapman’s career and first time in his postseason career that a manager would ask him to get a six out save.  After striking out Hunter Pence, Gillaspie came to the plate with the chance to tie the game.

Chapman threw a fastball over the heart of the plate, and Gillaspie, yes, the very same Gillaspie, swung from his shoetops again.  Gillaspie hit this ball even harder than the one he hit off Familia.  The reason it wasn’t a home run was because it is 421 to right center at AT&T Park.  In Citi Field, that’s a home run.  Really, in any other park, that’s a home run.  Instead, in AT&T Park, it is a bases clearing triple that gave the Giants a 4-3 lead.  After that Brandon Crawford hit an RBI single scoring Gillaspie to make it 5-3.

That was a crucial at-bat against a Giants team that does not know how to quit.  They weren’t daunted by facing Chapman.  They weren’t daunted when Sergio Romo blew a save by allowing Kris Bryant to hit a game tying two run home run in the ninth.  No, this Giants team fought off elimination by winning on a Joe Panik walk-off RBI double.

Now, if Chapman did his job and got Gillaspie out like he should’ve, the Cubs would’ve won the series.  However, that’s the life of a closer.  They all blow the big ones.

Look no further than the greatest closer, postseason or otherwise.  In Mariano Rivera‘s first postseason as the Yankees closer, he was asked to make a five out save to close out the 1997 ALDS and send the Yankees to the ALCS to continue to defend their World Series title.  Rivera would allow Sandy Alomar, Jr. to hit a game tying home run in a game the Yankees would lose in the ninth.  The Yankees would go on to lose the series.

In the 2001 World Series, Rivera took the mound to save Game 7 of the World Series.  Not only did Rivera allow a Mark Grace lead-off single, he then threw Damian Miller‘s sacrifice bunt attempt into center field.  After Rivera calmed things down by field Jay Bell‘s sacrifice bunt attempt and nailing Grace at third, he allowed a game tying double to Tony Womack.  Eventually, the Yankees would lose the World Series on a Luis Gonzalez walk-off single.

Fast-forward a couple of years to the 2004 ALCS.  On back-to-back nights, Rivera blew saves that allowed the Red Sox to complete the improbable and unprecedented comeback from being down 0-3 in the series.  It was Rivera’s blown saves that gave the Red Sox life and that ultimately propelled them to their first World Series title since 1918.

However, when talking about the totality of Rivera’s career, we don’t focus on those four devastating blown saves.  No, we call him the greatest closer in the history of the game because we use perspective and realize there was a greater body of work available to derive a conclusion.  In his postseason career, Rivera made 96 appearances going 8-1 with 18 saves, a 0.32 ERA, and a 0.571 WHIP.

Now, no one is calling or comparing Familia to Rivera.  However, Rivera is illustrative of the fact that we should again take the totality of his postseason appearances into account.  The Mets certainly don’t get out of the NLDS without Familia, and the NLCS would’ve been more difficult if Familia wasn’t shutting the door.  In Familia’s postseason career, he has made 13 appearances going 0-1 with five saves, a 2.30 ERA, and a 0.638 WHIP.  And remember, two of his three blown saves were the result of a Daniel Murphy and a Lucas Duda error.  Flat out, Familia has been great in the postseason.

By the way, Chapman is 2/4 in save chances in his postseason career.  Overall, he has made eight appearances going 0-1 with a 2.57 ERA and a 1.571 WHIP.  Familia is better.