A quick review of how the Mets’ pitchers fared over the past week.
The Mets continue to experience injuries and turnover of their pitching staff at an extremely high rate as they hobble into the All-Star Break. The bats have finally started to help them overcome it, but there are still plenty of good pitching performances mixed in with the bad. Reinforcements are on the way as Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea are both set to return this weekend, which should hopefully bring some stability—at least to the rotation.
Every week it feels like I add a couple of red crosses to the meter, so let’s review those first. Paul Blackburn has hit the IL with a right shoulder impingement, as the Mets have lost yet another starting pitcher and are really at the end of their rope as far as depth is concerned. Dedniel Núñez unfortunately may need Tommy John surgery and is sidelined for a longer period of time. José Buttó is ill and should return after the break, but the Mets could ill afford to be short-handed on their pitching staff, so they placed him on the injured list to cycle a fresh arm in.
The best pitching performance of the week belongs to David Peterson, who stepped up in the rubber game of the Brewers series to give the Mets 6 2⁄3 innings, over which he gave up two runs, only one of which was earned. He struck out four and walked three in his sixth victory of the season. Right now Peterson is the only Mets starter going deep into games with any consistency.
Ryne Stanek recorded the final out of the seventh inning in relief of Peterson on Thursday and then went on to pitch a scoreless eighth as well, striking out the side in that inning. It was a huge week for Stanek, who had somewhat fallen out of favor due to inconsistent performance, but is back in a high leverage role with many other bullpen arms injured. Stanek pitched 2⁄3 of an inning in Wednesday’s Game 2 victory, but he did struggle in his outing against the Yankees on Saturday. The Mets had a big enough lead that they were able to withstand it, but it did cause Carlos Mendoza to use Edwin Díaz in a game he normally would not have. Díaz pitched the ninth in a non-save situation without incident, striking out two in the outing. Díaz also followed Stanek on Thursday and pitched a scoreless ninth inning with two strikeouts to earn his 18th save of the season. Stanek also made way for Díaz on Wednesday night when Díaz recorded a four-out save, retiring all four batters he faced in order—three of them via the strikeout. Díaz’s All-Star nod is incredibly deserved, as he enters the final week of the first half with a sub-2 ERA.
Clay Holmes also pitched well this week, but he didn’t go as deep into the game as Peterson did because Carlos Mendoza chose to pull him in the sixth after 90 pitches, though he was still doing fine at that point. Holmes’ four walks against one strikeout elevated his pitch count and he took the no-decision despite only yielding two runs on three hits in 5 1⁄3 innings of work.
Holmes took the no-decision because Reed Garrett ended up blowing the lead in that sixth inning, giving up four runs on a grand slam by Joey Ortiz in a disastrous outing. Garrett was well on his way to poop emoji status with that appearance, but his outing on Friday night was as brilliant as his outing on Wednesday afternoon was horrific. With Díaz unavailable, Garrett stepped up huge in the Mets’ victory in a thrilling back-and-forth Subway Series opener with two scoreless innings to earn his third save of the season.
Brandon Waddell soaked up the rest of the innings in Wednesday’s Game 1 loss after things went south quickly for Garrett. Waddell pitched three innings and gave up one run on a solo homer by Isaac Collins, but the game was already mostly out of reach at that point. Waddell of course also served as the bulk guy in Sunday’s bullpen game and gave up a home run in that outing too, but that home run was to Aaron Judge, who has hit a lot of home runs against a lot of people. And to be fair to Waddell, the Mets should have probably opted to walk Judge intentionally in that spot. Overall, Waddell was charged with two runs in 2 2⁄3 innings.
Despite the motley crew of pitchers who appeared in Sunday’s game, the game ended up being closer than many would have anticipated at the outset. Chris Devenski pitched brilliantly as the opener, allowing just one baserunner over the first two frames and striking out two batters. Devenski also recorded the final out of the seventh inning in Saturday’s game. Carlos Mendoza tried to stretch the newly acquired Zach Pop to two innings as well and that did not go as well as it did with Devenski. Pop was the only one on Sunday to truly pitch poorly, giving up three runs on five hits in 1 1⁄3 innings. After Judge’s homer against Waddell, the Mets then found themselves in a 5-0 hole that they almost, but could not quite climb out of. Rico Garcia—another new face on the meter this week—helped keep the Mets in the game though with two scoreless innings of work at the end of the game. He gave up just one hit and struck out two in his Mets debut.
Huascar Brazobán pitched the seventh inning on Sunday and gave up an insurance run to the Yankees, but it was otherwise a good week for him. He began his week by serving as the opener in Game 2 of Wednesday’s doubleheader and worked around a walk to pitch a 1-2-3 inning. He then contributed a scoreless seventh to Friday’s exciting victory ahead of Garrett’s two-inning save, striking out three batters in the process. That performance earned Brazobán his fourth win of the season.
Justin Hagenman was the starter in Friday’s game and he ended up giving the Mets enough to win, but it still would be a bit of a stretch to call the performance good. Strikeouts and home runs were the theme of the outing, as he gave up back-to-back home runs to start the game, but ended up striking out five batters and walking none in 4 1⁄3 innings of work. He got taken deep in the outing a total of three times and gave up four runs.
Austin Warren came in to relieve Hagenman in the fifth and gave up a go-ahead two-run homer to Jasson Domínguez that charged one run to Hagenman’s ledger and one run to Warren’s. Warren came back out for the sixth and that inning went much more smoothly. He issued a one-out walk, but then induced an inning-ending double play grounder. Luckily for Warren, the Mets came back to win the game and he avoided taking the loss.
Blade Tidwell pitched 4 1⁄3 innings after Brazobán’s scoreless first on Wednesday night. Like a lot of Mets pitchers this week, he was vulnerable to the long ball and gave up two in the outing. In total, he gave up three runs on five hits, striking out three and walking two. It wasn’t exactly pretty, but it was good enough for the Mets to win and for Tidwell to earn his first big league win.
After Dedniel Núñez recorded the final two outs of the fifth in Wednesday’s Game 2 victory in what would end up being his final outing before hitting the IL, Dicky Lovelady contributed a 1-2-3 seventh inning with one strikeout, earning his first hold of the season. Lovelady did not have a clean sheet in his other outing on Saturday—he gave up a solo homer to Anthony Volpe—but he still did earn a hold for that performance because the Mets held onto the lead. Lovelady recorded the final out of the sixth and the first two outs of the seventh before making way to Devenski to face the righties.
Frankie Montas earned his first Mets win on Saturday. He gave up four runs on five hits in 5 2⁄3 innings of work. The Yankees took him deep twice, but it was still a huge bounce back outing from his ghastly performance in Pittsburgh. Montas struck out two batters and walked none. Luckily the Mets’ bats came to play on Saturday and gave Montas lots of run support to work with.