A quick review of how the Mets’ pitchers fared over the past week.
The pitching staff had another good week overall, as it always does. Paul Blackburn had an excellent first start of 2025 and then was jettisoned to the bullpen, where he recorded a four-inning save. Griffin Canning completely shut down the potent Dodgers lineup as well and David Peterson had a strong game in LA. Some of the Mets’ most reliable relievers had off weeks, but it’s rare the entire bullpen is off at once and other members of the bullpen, like José Buttó, had a bounce back week.
After a setback due to illness, Paul Blackburn has finally returned from injury and had a great first week back with the Mets. First, he completely neutralized the Dodgers on Monday, twirling five scoreless innings with three strikeouts and a walk. Then, he saved the rest of the bullpen in Sunday’s lopsided victory in Colorado by piggybacking with Tylor Megill to pitch the final four innings, which earned him a save even though he gave up three runs in the process.
Tylor Megill did not actually pitch all that well on Sunday, but the offense slugged their way to a victory anyway, giving Megill plenty of run support to earn him his fifth win of the season. Megill gave up two runs on three hits, striking out five and walking three. But what the Mets really needed out of Megill after a long week for the bullpen was length and he failed to provide that. But Blackburn came to the rescue to ensure the rest of the bullpen got a day off. Megill also started Tuesday’s extra inning loss and got a no-decision, yielding four runs in six innings of work. He struck out seven Dodgers and walked only one in a perfectly acceptable performance against one of the league’s most potent lineups.
Still, all of the other Mets starters in the Dodgers series were even better. Griffin Canning earns a fireball this week for pitching six scoreless innings in Los Angeles on Wednesday in what was the only decisive victory in the series for either team. Canning struck out seven and walked only one, yielding just three hits in one of his finest performances this season. He improved to 6-2 with a sparkling 2.90 ERA.
David Peterson followed the next day with a quality start against the Dodgers, giving up just three runs in seven innings of work. He finished his afternoon emphatically with a strikeout of Shohei Ohtani, who the Mets did an excellent job of keeping in check across the four-game series. It was his sixth strikeout of the afternoon. Unfortunately the Dodgers came from behind to win the game, handing Peterson a no-decision.
It was Reed Garrett who gave up three runs in the eighth to blow the game on Thursday in a rare misstep. Garrett’s other outing this week was more successful. In Tuesday’s extra-inning loss, Garrett pitched a scoreless eighth with two strikeouts to earn his fourteenth hold of the season.
After Garrett melted down in the eighth on Thursday, Brandon Waddell came in the game to record the final out of the inning and stop the bleeding. Waddell also preceded Garrett in relief in Tuesday’s game and pitched a scoreless seventh to earn his first hold of the season. Waddell was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse in order to make room on the roster for Justin Garza, who will appear in next week’s meter. Max Kranick had been optioned to make way for Waddell after giving up a solo home run to Shohei Ohtani (that’ll happen) in Monday’s game that got the Dodgers on the board in the seventh.
Garrett was not the only otherwise reliable reliever to cough up a lead in a close game this week. Edwin Díaz blew a save in the ninth on Monday on a pair of singles and an Ohtani game-tying sac fly. Díaz then did log an absolutely huge strikeout of Teoscar Hernández to end the inning with the game still tied and send the game to extras. The Mets won the game in the tenth, earning Díaz the win. Díaz bounced back with a scoreless ninth inning on Friday after Francisco Lindor’s heroics in the top of the inning to earn his 14th save of the season.
It was a rough week for Huascar Brazobán, who blew two leads this week. Even the scoreless sixth inning he pitched on Monday to start his week was a shaky one. He loaded the bases on a single and two walks, but kept the Dodgers off the board via a big strikeout of Tommy Edman to earn his eighth hold of the season. But things went downhill for him from there. Tasked with the save chance on Tuesday, Brazobán gave up a game-tying solo home run to Max Muncy to lead off the ninth inning. To his credit, he struck out the next three batters he faced in order, but the Dodgers went on to win the game in extras. Brazobán also allowed a late game-tying run in the seventh inning on Friday in the form of a Sam Hilliard triple and a Mickey Moniak single. But luckily once again Brazobán did not allow it to balloon into a huge inning and thanks to Lindor, the Mets went on to win the game and bail him out.
Ryne Stanek earned the win on Friday for pitching a scoreless eighth inning, despite getting himself into trouble. He was assisted by some fantastic defense by Brett Baty, who caught Ryan McMahon’s liner and slapped a tag on Jordan Beck to double him off third base. Stanek then struck out Brenton Doyle to end the rally and set the stage for the exciting victory. Stanek also earned his fifth hold of the season for pitching a scoreless eighth inning in Monday’s game before things went south for Díaz in the ninth. Stanek did give up a solo homer to Andy Pages in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game, but luckily it was inconsequential due to the Mets’ six-run lead.
Kodai Senga pitched yet another fantastic game on Friday. The only run off him came on a solo homer by Mickey Moniak in the third inning. Senga struck out six batters and walked two over six strong innings of work. He now holds a 1.59 ERA for the season and should at least be on the periphery of the NL Cy Young conversation, if not right in the middle of it.
Similarly, Clay Holmes conquered Coors Field on Saturday, also giving up a solo homer and nothing else over six innings of work. He did yield nine hits, but he struck out six Rockies and walked none in yet another quality start.
José Buttó pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Holmes on Saturday, finishing his week on a high note. He gave up just one hit and struck out two batters. The Dodgers series was a rollercoaster for Buttó, who earned the save on Monday by recording the final two outs in the tenth, but then took the loss in the tenth the following day. However, it’s hard to ding Buttó’s grade for Tuesday’s performance; the run was unearned due to the ghost runner and though Freddie Freeman’s walk-off was scored a double, it was a misplay by Brandon Nimmo that should have been caught.
It’s really hard to overstate how huge José Castillo has been for the Mets since they acquired him. Castillo had a clean sheet this week across three appearances. On Monday, he allowed the ghost runner to score on an Andy Pages RBI single in the tenth, but luckily the Mets were working with a two-run lead and Castillo bounced back to log a huge strikeout of Max Muncy before handing the ball off to Buttó. Castillo’s most important outing this week was on Wednesday when he soaked up two scoreless innings in relief of Canning to earn his third hold of the season. He followed that with a 1-2-3 ninth inning on Saturday, complete with a strikeout. He has yet to allow an earned run across eight games with the Mets.