Mets Discard Oliver Perez Reinvents Himself as Mariner SEATTLE - At the worst moment of his career, Oliver Perez swallowed hard, blinked several times to prevent tears from forming and told reporters what all ballplayers say, even if sometimes it's hard to believe. He claimed he still loved the game. His earned run average was over 8.00, his velocity was under 86, and every time he walked anywhere near a mound, a thunderstorm of boos assaulted his ears. Other than the money, what's to love about that? It was March 21, 2011, and the Mets had, in the words of Perez, just fired him. He was so bad that the strapped club was willing to eat most of the $12 million it still owed him just to make him go away and stop reminding the Mets of their costly mistake - a three-year, $36 million extension for a left-handed starter they thought could win 15 to 18 games a season. Perez had been so bad the season before that the Mets tried to send him to the minor leagues, a request he rebuffed. The Mets responded by refusing to pitch him for a month, and in all, he appeared in only 17 games for the season, with an 0-5 record and a 6.80 E.R.A. In an absurd outing in the final game of 2010, he walked three batters and hit another in the 14th inning. Naturally, he took the loss. By spring training in 2011, he had become such a distraction that the Mets could no longer abide his presence. Never mind that a lingering knee injury was preventing him from throwing with his usual force. The Mets, and their fans, wanted him gone, and now he was. But before he ducked into a waiting sport utility vehicle, Perez dutifully spoke to reporters in Port St. Lucie, Fla., vowing to come back with another team. "I think when you get fired from anywhere, you feel sad," he said. It's not a good moment. But you have to be stronger, you know. And my life is not done. More than two years later, Perez has made good on his promise. After spending 18 months fighting and scraping his way through the lower levels of the professional game, Perez has reinvented himself with the Seattle Mariners and now has some of the most impressive numbers of any reliever in Major League Baseball. His E.R.A. going into Saturday's game against the Yankees was 1.29, the 10th lowest among relief pitchers with at least 21 innings pitched, and he had 28 strikeouts in 21 innings. "He's been invaluable to us," Mariners Manager Eric Wedge said. He got his velocity back, and now he's pitching with confidence. He's just been huge. His path to being an invaluable member of the Mariners actually began the day he left the Mets for good. "I couldn't believe it," Perez said in a recent interview. I got home and I cried with my wife. I was in shock. But I was only 29. My family told me, "You are too young to quit." " Two days later, Scott Boras, his agent, found Perez work with the Washington Nationals. It was not glamorous. He was assigned to Class AA Harrisburg, where he spent the season riding buses and sleeping in modest hotels. He made 15 starts and had a 3.09 earned run average. And his knee was healing. Toward the end of the season, the coaching staff in Harrisburg, realizing that Perez's numbers against left-handed hitters had become exceptional, suggested that he consider becoming a left-handed specialist, a short reliever used primarily to retire left-handed hitters. Thinking it was the quickest way back to the majors, Perez embraced the idea. He went home to Culiacán to pitch in the Mexican Winter League and also went to work with Rafael Arroyo, a former bullpen catcher with the Mets. Perez's career as a reliever began to take shape. "He was very vulnerable at the time," Arroyo said. He hadn't had success, and he lost a lot of confidence. He was really in a do-or-die situation. It was a turning point for him. He had to give up his ego and go about as far down as you can go to get back up to where he is. While Perez was toiling in Mexico, Boras called the Mariners and told them they had to see him. His knee was strong again and his velocity was up to 94 miles per hour. And Perez did pitch well for Culiacán, although even there, in the city of his birth, he was still susceptible to hearing the jeers that had become his soundtrack with the Mets. "I was more nervous pitching in Mexico because everybody wants you to be good all the time," he said. I'm the first one to get to the big leagues from that city. But sometimes they boo me, too. So far, he has not been booed in Seattle. He joined the Mariners last June, and in 33 games last season had a 1-3 record and a solid 2.12 E.R.A. This season, his E.R.A., after 24 appearances, is startling. Moreover, Perez, 31, says he wants to pitch until he is 40 and wants to pitch on a championship team. Maybe that will be in Seattle, or maybe somewhere else. Just not in Queens. "With these numbers, he's going to be at minimum an eighth-inning guy like a Jeremy Affeldt," Boras said, citing the left-handed specialist who has won two championship rings with the San Francisco Giants in the last three seasons. "He fought his way back," Boras said of Perez.