If you thought the pitching meter would provide the usual balm after a horrendous hitting meter, well, I have bad news for you. After being a strength for the Mets all season, the injuries are beginning to pile up for the pitching staff. And the performance of the rotation has been inconsistent.
There are a lot of new names on this week’s meter. Part of the reason for that is that there are yet more new injuries to report this week. Tylor Megill and Max Kranick are both on the injured list, which resulted in some roster churn this week. Blade Tidwell took a spot start in Friday’s game and did okay—certainly better than his first major league start. He got through the first three innings with relative ease and then hit a wall in the fourth, leaving the game after just 3 2⁄3 innings. He would end up being charged with two runs. He walked three batters and struck out four in the outing.
After Tidwell gave up a run on a couple of singles, a walk, and an RBI groundout, José Castillo was tasked with facing the lefty Brandon Marsh and allowed a single before the inning came to a close, tagging Tidwell with the second run on his ledger. Castillo also pitched a scoreless inning in Wednesday’s loss.
Wednesday’s game was started by Paul Blackburn and it wasn’t a complete disaster, but even if Blackburn had pitched a masterpiece, it didn’t very much matter since the Mets were completely shut down by Chris Sale. Like Tidwell, Blackburn lasted just 3 2⁄3 innings, but part of that was because the first inning was prolonged by poor defense by the Mets. Thus, only three of the four runs Blackburn surrendered were earned. He struck out two batters and walked two in the outing, in which he took the loss.
After Castillo’s scoreless inning on Wednesday, Ty Adcock pitched the seventh inning and gave up a solo homer to Matt Olsen. That was his only outing this week before being optioned back down to Triple-A. Justin Hagenman also had just one outing this week before being sent back down to the minors; that came the following day, in which he was tasked with long relief in Thursday’s loss. He soaked up 2 2⁄3 innings admirably, allowing just two hits and striking out a batter and walking none.
Clay Holmes was the starter on Thursday and like mostly everybody else this week, failed to go deep into the game. Holmes’ issue was walks; he issued six free passes in 4 2⁄3 innings of work. He struck out five batters and yielded three runs, taking his fourth loss of the season.
With Holmes already having walked in a run in the fifth on Thursday, Huascar Brazobán was tasked with keeping the game from getting out of control. Brazobán walked in another run before all was said and done and then came back out in the sixth and had a meltdown, allowing the game to get away. He was charged with four runs in total in 2⁄3 of an inning. It was a rough week for Brazobán, who took the loss in Tuesday’s game in the tenth for allowing the walk-off sacrifice fly to Austin Riley after loading the bases on an intentional walk and then an unintentional walk. That run was of course unearned, but all four runs he gave up on Thursday were earned. Brazobán redeemed his grade on Saturday by pitching two scoreless innings in the Mets’ only victory of the week to earn his ninth hold of the season.
Griffin Canning earned the win on Saturday thanks to ample run support from his offense. Canning recovered from a couple of rough early innings to pitch five innings. He gave up four runs—three of them earned. He struck out four and walked two in the outing.
After a rough go of things recently, Ryne Stanek recovered with a scoreless eighth inning on Saturday, which represents his only outing for the week. Chris Devenski, newly up from Triple-A this week, followed Stanek with a scoreless ninth to cap off the victory. Devenski had a clean sheet in his first week back with the big league club, also pitching a scoreless fifth inning in yesterday’s loss.
Devenski’s effort yesterday came in relief of David Peterson, who had a string of excellent starts until yesterday’s clunker. Peterson lasted just four innings yesterday, giving up five runs on six hits, striking out four batters and walking three. He fell victim to the long ball, giving up two home runs in the outing. Peterson avoids a poop emoji though because he had a much better start on Tuesday, despite the gut wrenching extra-inning loss. The loss was not on Peterson, who gave the Mets a quality start—three runs allowed in seven innings of work. More of the fault lies with Carlos Mendoza, who sent Peterson back out for the eighth inning. Peterson allowed the first two batters to reach base and then came out of the game without recording an out in the eighth. Both of those runs came around to score, marring what could have been a sparkling stat line for Peterson.
Reed Garrett allowed his inherited runners from Peterson to score in the eighth on Tuesday and then some. But with Tuesday’s game still tied in the ninth, Edwin Díaz pitched a scoreless ninth inning to send the game into extras before the Mets were walked off in the tenth. That was his only outing for the week. It was a nightmarish week for Garrett, who failed to record an out in the seventh inning on Friday. He allowed two runs before making way for Justin Garza, who poured gasoline on the fire. All told, the Phillies scored six runs in the inning and blew the doors off the game, which was tied going into the inning. Garza did have a scoreless outing on his ledger, pitching a 1-2-3 ninth inning in Wednesday’s loss. Garrett had no such outing and thus gets a poop emoji this week.
Before things went completely sideways for Garrett and Garza on Friday, José Buttó contributed two scoreless innings in relief. He didn’t allow a single hit and struck out three batters. This Herculean effort by Buttó will unfortunately likely be forgotten because of the subsequent meltdown, but Buttó has quietly put together another strong week. Buttó inherited a mess in the fourth inning of Wednesday’s loss and threw a wild pitch to score a run (charged to Blackburn), but bounced back to pitch a scoreless fifth inning after that.
Yesterday’s loss saw appearances from the final two new faces on this week’s meter. Dedniel Núñez pitched a scoreless sixth inning and made way for Tyler Zuber, who ate the final two innings of the lopsided loss. Zuber gave up an additional two tack-on runs for the Phillies and was optioned back to Triple-A today to make room for new roster addition Dicky Lovelady, who will be active for tonight’s game.