As usual, there is much more green than red on the pitching meter, but there is also a poop emoji on this week’s meter for the first time in recent memory. Griffin Canning pitched a clunker. It happens. But the positives still far outweigh the negatives; the rotation as a whole has remained consistently excellent and Edwin Díaz is still lights out.
We’ll rip the bandage off and tackle Griffin Canning’s poor outing first. It was his worst as a Met by a significant margin. It’s true that Canning was not helped by his defense and there were some shoddy plays made behind him, but the defense didn’t make him issue four walks in just three innings of work. All told, he gave up five runs—three of them earned—and took the loss. Sometimes bad starts happen, but it is just more galling when it happens against an offense as poor as the White Sox.
Brandon Waddell, freshly called up from Triple-A, pitched five innings of long relief on Wednesday, saving the rest of the bullpen. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well for him. With the Mets having clawed back to within shouting distance, he let the game get away again, surrendering four additional runs on seven hits. He was promptly optioned back to Triple-A in favor of Chris Devenski, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning in Saturday’s lopsided victory. Devenski’s time back with the big league club was also short-lived, as he was optioned today to make room on the roster for Paul Blackburn, who will make his season debut today and appear in next week’s meter.
Ryne Stanek pitched the ninth inning on Wednesday and was the only pitcher to emerge that day with a clean sheet, despite allowing a hit and a walk. That was his only appearance this week. Max Kranick did not make an appearance this week.
Clay Holmes is the only member of the rotation to pitch twice this week and the Mets won both games he pitched—the first in walk-off fashion. In Monday’s start against the White Sox, Holmes allowed one run on four hits, striking out three batters and walking three batters in 5 2⁄3 innings of work. He did not factor into the decision because the Mets were completely shut down by former Met Adrian Houser, but Holmes kept the game close enough to allow the Mets to come back and win late. All of the damage against Holmes yesterday came via the long ball—a solo shot by Orlando Arcia in the third and a game-tying two-run homer by Tyler Freeman in the fifth. But Holmes was economical with his pitches and lasted seven innings for the first time, earning his sixth victory of the season.
Edwin Díaz pitched the ninth inning both on Monday and yesterday and continues to be dominant of late. He earned the win on Monday, working around a walk and striking out a batter to set the stage for the walk-off victory. He allowed a hit yesterday, but struck out three batters to earn his 13th save of the season. Díaz also earned the save in Friday’s game, striking out the side in the ninth. The Mets’ closer is simply unhittable right now.
Because Holmes went deep into the game yesterday, a scoreless eighth from Reed Garrett is all that was needed to build the bridge to Díaz. Garrett worked around a hit and struck out two batters in the scoreless frame. Garrett continued his run of strong work this week, earning his second save of the season in Tuesday’s game with 1 2⁄3 scoreless innings of work, in which he walked one batter and struck out three. He also preceded Díaz on Friday, earning a hold for a 1-2-3 eighth inning with another couple of strikeouts.
David Peterson started Friday’s game and kept the Rockies off the board for five frames before getting into trouble with two outs in the sixth. He allowed a single, hit a batter with a pitch, and then a double by Ryan McMahon put the Rockies on the board and ended Peterson’s night after 5 2⁄3 innings. Peterson struck out five and walked one in his fourth victory of the season.
Huascar Brazobán came in to relieve Peterson on Friday and recorded the final out of the sixth inning without further damage. However, Sam Hilliard hit a solo homer off him in the top of the seventh in his second inning of work to bring the Rockies within a run. Luckily, Garrett and Díaz held the fort and Francisco Lindor provided an insurance run, so the homer off Brazobán did not turn out to be consequential. Brazobán also appeared in Monday’s game, contributing 1 1⁄3 scoreless innings in relief of Holmes, striking out one batter and walking one batter in the process.
José Buttó recorded the final out of the sixth inning in relief of Holmes on Monday, successfully neutralizing a bases loaded situation at a key point in the game. He also recorded the first out of the seventh inning as well before being replaced by Brazobán. Unfortunately, his outing the following day was less successful; Buttó continues to be unreliable pitching a second day in a row. He recorded the final out of the sixth inning without incident, but then came back out for the seventh and gave up two runs to bring the White Sox to within a run. Buttó ended his week on a positive note, pitching 1 2⁄3 scoreless innings in relief of Kodai Senga in Saturday’s victory. He walked two and struck out one in that outing.
José Castillo came in the game in the seventh inning on Tuesday when things had gotten dicey quickly for Buttó. He promptly hit Andrew Benintendi with a pitch, but struck out Edgar Quero to escape the inning with the lead in tact. Castillo recorded the first out of the eighth inning as well before being replaced by Garrett. It was the second day in a row Castillo struck out Quero in a key spot. He did the same in the eighth inning on Monday to help keep the Mets’ deficit to just one run.
Tylor Megill earned the win on Tuesday for yielding just two runs in 5 2⁄3 innings of work. He walked four batters (which is too many), but he also struck out six batters. The only damage off him came in the form of a two-run homer in the first inning by Miguel Vargas, but luckily the Mets responded with four runs in the bottom of the frame.
Kodai Senga logged yet another quality start on Saturday, giving up just two runs in 6 1⁄3 innings of work, striking out seven batters and walking only two. The Mets’ ace is having a historic first half. He is now 6-3 with a 1.60 ERA as we head into June.