In most sports, coaching happens behind the scenes, away from the cameras and fans. But when a pitcher is struggling, as has often been the case for the Mets this season, the pitching coach pops out of the dugout, jogs to the mound and delivers 15 seconds or so of instruction in full view of everyone.
It is not a happy occasion.
“Nobody likes me coming out there,” said Dan Warthen, who fills that job on the Mets. “It’s not ‘Oh, boy, Dan is coming out there. This is great.’”
But out there he keeps going in a 2017 season that has turned sideways for the Mets because of unexpected pitching woes.