A quick review of how the Mets’ pitchers fared over the past week.
This week’s pitching meter can pretty much be summed up with:
Injuries have struck the Mets in earnest now. We have learned that AJ Minter is out for the year and this week Danny Young got Tommy John surgery and will also miss the season. The Mets are now without a reliable left-handed reliever and have cycled pitchers up and down from the minor leagues to help fill out their six-man rotation in the absence of off days. It has not gone particularly well. There are twenty names on this meter this week, so let’s get to it.
With Young and Minter out for the year, the newly called up Génesis Cabrera is now the only left-hander in the Mets bullpen, which does not exactly fill one with confidence. In his first outing this week in Thursday’s game, Cabrera faced three batters and only retired one of them. He came in the game to relieve Kodai Senga in the fifth inning with the Diamondbacks up by a run and made the situation worse, retiring the first batter he faced, but then walking a batter and giving up a long fly ball to Josh Naylor that missed being a home run by about two inches that instead bounced off the top of the wall and back in play for a double. The runner at third would come around to score to give the Diamondbacks some insurance. Cabrera’s other outing this week was much better. In the day game of Sunday’s doubleheader, he came in with two outs in the fourth to relieve Blade Tidwell and recorded the final out of that inning to end the rally and then provided 1 2⁄3 additional scoreless innings after that. With the Mets down by four runs, it didn’t seem significant at the time, but given the fact that they almost came back to win the game, Cabrera’s good work in long relief proved useful.
Unfortunately, Blade Tidwell’s major league debut did not go well. He took the loss and was charged with six runs on nine hits in 3 2⁄3 innings. The Mets offense came close to bailing him out, but couldn’t quite get there. Another new face on the meter this week Austin Warren pitched a scoreless seventh inning in relief of Tidwell in that contest, which was his only work for the week serving as the 27th man for the doubleheader.
Somehow Tidwell’s wasn’t even the worst performance this week. I’m going to give that to José Ureña only because he had such a massive lead and still coughed up five runs. Despite getting slapped with the poop emoji, he earned a save because he pitched the last three innings of the game, so he does get some marks for saving the rest of the bullpen.
Monday’s rout of the Nationals was to Griffin Canning’s benefit. Canning earned his fourth win of the season with five scoreless innings. He scattered four hits, struck out five, and walked three in outing. The Mets could have used some more length out of Canning, but it was a fine performance nonetheless.
Max Kranick pitched a scoreless sixth inning in relief of Canning on Monday before handing it off to Ureña the rest of the way. Kranick’s other outings this week were in much closer games and did not go as well. After Cabrera was unable to get through the fifth inning on Thursday, Kranick came in the game and recorded the final two outs of the inning. The first of those was a sacrifice fly and the run was charged to Cabrera. Kranick pitched two additional innings after that and deserves props for soaking them up, but he gave up a solo homer to Geraldo Perdomo in the seventh to give the Diamondbacks even more cushion. The real kick in the shin for Kranick came in the nightcap of Sunday’s doubleheader, in which he gave up the go-ahead—and ultimate game-winning—run in the sixth inning on a Victor Scott RBI double. That earned Kranick his first loss of the season.
Tylor Megill started Game 2 of Sunday’s doubleheader and had arguably his worst start thus far this season. It wasn’t quite in Tidwell or Ureña territory, but for a guy who wants to be an ace and stick in the rotation, it wasn’t good enough. He yielded four runs on four hits in five innings of work. He struck out six batters and walked three. He definitely was not as sharp as he had been in April, but hopefully this is just a blip for Megill.
Ryne Stanek came in the game on Sunday evening after Kranick and contributed a scoreless seventh, working around a hit and striking out a batter. Stanek also polished off Friday’s tidy victory with a scoreless ninth inning. However, Stanek’s week began much like how his previous week went. On Wednesday, he took the loss for a poor seventh inning in which the Diamondbacks took the lead. He came in the game with one out in the inning and gave up three hits and two runs before finally stopping the bleeding.
The Diamondbacks added to their lead on Wednesday with two runs off Chris Devenski in his Mets debut. Devenski pitched a scoreless eighth to keep the Mets within striking distance, but then Carlos Mendoza put him back on the mound for a second inning of work for some reason and was punished for it. Devenski gave up two runs in the ninth and then as a result, the Mets’ ninth inning rally fell just short.
Wednesday was a bitterly disappointing loss (there were a few of those this week) and perhaps the most unfortunate thing about it is that almost no one will remember how well Brandon Waddell pitched in his Mets debut. Waddell was excellent, giving the Mets 4 1⁄3 scoreless innings as the bulk guy. He gave up just three hits in the outing, struck out four, and didn’t walk anybody. Waddell was one pitching experiment the Mets tried this week that actually worked and given that he is left-handed, he could potentially be the answer to the Mets’ lack of lefty relievers sometime down the line.
Where would the Mets be without Huascar Brazobán? I don’t know, but I hope we don’t have to find out. Brazobán’s been so solid this year and this week was no exception. On Wednesday he served as the opener and pitched two scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Brazobán also recorded the final out of the sixth inning in Game 1 of Sunday’s doubleheader.
Reed Garrett pitched a scoreless eighth in Game 1 on Sunday to try to set up for a Mets comeback, which did not occur. Garrett also followed Kranick on Thursday and pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, but then gave up a solo homer to Tim Tawa to lead off the ninth. Ty Adcock came in the game with two outs and loaded the bases, but then managed to get Eugenio Suárez to pop out to escape unscathed. That one out was the only out he recorded in the big leagues this week before being sent back down to Triple-A on Friday.
Kodai Senga took the loss on Thursday. He only allowed one run, but dealt with a lot of traffic on the base paths through his four innings of work. He struck out six batters to help limit the damage, but he also walked three. Senga was also still recovering from an illness that had been going around the clubhouse, which likely affected his stamina.
The Mets gave David Peterson a lot of early run support on Tuesday and he benefitted from it to earn the win—his second of the season. He gave up one run on five hits through five innings of work, striking out two batters and walking none. Kevin Herget—yet another pitcher to make one appearance this week before being sent back down to Triple-A the next day—pitched the final two innings of the game on Tuesday and gave up two runs, but only one of them was earned and with the Mets up big it did change the outcome of the game.
José Buttó contributed two scoreless, hitless innings to Tuesday’s victory, striking out four and walking one batter. Buttó had a clean sheet this week; it is one of his best weeks of the season thus far. He also pitched two scoreless innings in Friday’s win in relief of Clay Holmes. Buttó yielded just one hit in that outing, striking out one and walking one. Holmes gave up eight hits on Friday, but still notched the quality start and earned his fourth win of the season. He was charged with three runs in six innings of work. He struck out three batters and walked none.
Edwin Díaz only pitched once this week and it was in a game the Mets were losing. Díaz pitched the eighth inning of Game 2 of Sunday’s doubleheader with the Mets down a run. He was a little shaky and gave up two hits, but kept the Cardinals off the board to help keep the Mets within striking distance. Sadly, the Mets did not reward his performance with a ninth inning rally.