A quick review of how the Mets’ pitchers fared over the past week.
Another week, another pitching meter with only one bad grade on it. The Mets continue to lead the league in staff ERA by quite a large margin, despite some hiccups from the bullpen this week. But the Mets were in every single game they played this week once again because of the remarkable job the pitching staff has done. The Mets even required a spot appearance from Justin Hagenman this week because illness pushed Griffin Canning’s start back a day and Hagenman performed admirably. Though José Buttó had a rocky week, Edwin Díaz bounced back for a clean sheet across all three of his appearances this week.
Clay Holmes was the only starter to pitch twice this week and it was his best week as a Met so far. He earned the win on Monday with five innings of one-run ball, striking out eight batters and walking only two. But he said after the game that he wanted to make it through six innings and in his start yesterday he managed to do just that. In that outing, which ended in a no-decision for Holmes, but a Mets victory, he gave up one run on four hits, striking out six batters and walking two.
The Mets unfortunately couldn’t get Holmes the win yesterday because they blew the lead in the seventh inning. It began with Danny Young allowing two base runners and then with two outs José Buttó came in the game to finish the inning and was unable to do so with the lead in tact, giving up a game-tying RBI double to Thomas Saggese. Those runs were charged to Young. To Buttó’s credit, he did bounce back to pitch a 1-2-3 eighth inning after that. But Buttó also had a rough outing in Wednesday’s loss, hence the poor grade for him. He allowed an inherited runner to score on that day as well—the only run on Justin Hagenman’s ledger in his 3 1⁄3 innings of work—and two of his own. Hagenman was otherwise fantastic on Wednesday as the bulk guy, allowing just three hits and striking out four in the outing. Unlike Buttó, Young’s other outing this week was a successful one; he pitched the last 1 1⁄3 innings of Tuesday’s loss.
That came following Max Kranick’s first bad outing of the season. He allowed two insurance runs to the Twins on Tuesday in 1 2⁄3 innings of work. But he came up huge in Friday’s walk-off victory (after being sent down for a day) by holding the Cardinals to just one run by helping David Peterson navigate the sixth inning and then putting up another goose egg in the seventh.
Speaking of David Peterson, he pitched very well on Friday. Though he didn’t make it through six innings, he struck out nine Cardinals batters and held one of the more potent offenses in the National League to three runs in 5 1⁄3 innings. Ryne Stanek was instrumental to both Friday’s victory and yesterday’s. Stanek followed Kranick’s strong outing on Friday with one of his own, pitching a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Yesterday the Mets’ bats broke through in the bottom of the eighth to give Stanek some cushion in the ninth. He allowed a run, but still protected the lead to secure the victory and series sweep. Stanek appeared in relief in both of Clay Holmes’ starts this week; he also contributed a scoreless ninth inning on Monday with two strikeouts to polish off that win.
Huascar Brazobán appeared in relief in both Monday’s and Friday’s games and then was used as the opener ahead of Hagenman on Wednesday. He was great on both Monday and Wednesday. On Monday he pitched two hitless innings to earn his second hold of the season and on Wednesday he opened the game with a clean first inning. On Friday he gave up what felt like a back-breaking game-tying solo homer to Brendan Donovan to lead off the ninth inning after the Mets had clawed back to take the lead again in the bottom of the eighth. But to Brazobán’s credit, he struck out the next three batters he faced to keep the game tied, which set the stage for Francisco Lindor’s walk-off bomb.
After having his start pushed back due to illness, Griffin Canning looked none the worse for wear on Thursday. He put forward a quality start, yielding just one run on three hits through six innings of work. He struck out eight batters and walked only two, earning his second win of the season.
Reed Garrett came in the game in relief of Canning on Thursday and pitched a scoreless seventh inning to earn his fifth hold of the season. Garrett earned yet another hold on Saturday by contributing 1 1⁄3 hitless innings of work in that contest. His six holds for the season lead the team and are among the league leaders. Garrett also pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning with two strikeouts on Monday. The only blip in Garrett’s week came in Wednesday’s extra-inning loss when he allowed the ghost runner to score in the tenth, which proved to be the winning run. But it’s hard to knock his grade for that when the run was not earned and he otherwise put up a clean sheet for the week.
Speaking of clean sheets, the Mets had two other relievers besides Garrett to put up a 0.00 ERA this week. One of them is Edwin Díaz, which is refreshing after the rough start he has had. Díaz pitched a scoreless ninth inning in a tie game on Wednesday with two strikeouts to send that game into extras. His other two appearances this week were save opportunities and he converted them both. He worked around a walk to pitch a scoreless ninth inning on Thursday, striking out two. On Saturday he also struck out two batters en route to a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn his sixth save of the season.
A.J. Minter rounds out our trio of relievers with clean sheets this week. He was also part of the fray when the Mets emptied their bullpen on Wednesday, pitching a 1-2-3 eighth inning with two strikeouts. He earned his fourth hold of the season with a 1-2-3 eighth inning on Thursday. On Saturday, he decidedly did not pitch a 1-2-3 eighth inning. In fact, he walked the bases loaded. But he navigated through it to earn his fifth hold of the season and keep his squeaky clean ERA for the week in tact.
That final performance for the week from Minter came in relief of Kodai Senga, who was excellent yet again this week. Senga held the Cardinals scoreless on Saturday for 5 2⁄3 innings to earn his third win of the season. He struck out four batters and walked only two in the outing. His season ERA now stands at a sparkling 0.79.
Tylor Megill was not quite as impressive on Tuesday, but he kept the Mets in the game. He was knocked around for eight hits, but only two of the four runs he surrendered were earned. He struck out three batters and didn’t walk anyone. But he was tagged with the loss to even his record to 2-2 for the season.