The Mets’ pitching woes can be summarized pretty succinctly at the moment: They are getting less and less length out of their starters and the bullpen is being stretched to its limit and that is yielding some very frustrating results. (*Reminder that yesterday’s game is not part of this meter and will be included in next week’s meter.*)
David Peterson was the only Mets starter to go six innings last week, but he still took the loss because Gavin Williams no-hit the Mets for 8 2/3 innings until Juan
Soto broke it up with a home run that also broke up the shutout. Peterson gave up four runs on five hits, struck out seven, and walked two in the outing.
Justin Hagenman finished the game on Wednesday and did a great job soaking up two innings. He gave up just two hits and struck out a batter. Hagenman also pitched the final inning of Saturday’s loss and retired all three batters he faced in order, including a strikeout.
Between Peterson and Hagenman, Reed Garrett pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning with a strikeout. It was another (mostly) good week for Garrett. He twirled a 1-2-3 eighth inning in Monday’s extra inning loss complete with two strikeouts. Garrett served as the opener ahead of Frankie Montas on Saturday and was excellent, needing just 15 pitches to throw a scoreless first with two strikeouts. Montas was less excellent, giving up three runs in his three innings of work. To be fair to Montas, only one of those three runs was earned due to a fielding error by Francisco Lindor. But Montas has still lost his spot in the rotation and will throw out of the bullpen for the foreseeable future. The only blemish on Garrett’s week came in Sunday’s game in which he gave up a go-ahead home run to William Contreras, but it was still a positive week for Garrett overall.
Despite Montas’ struggles, the Mets entered the later innings with a lead, but the Brewers put together a four-run seventh. That began with Ryne Stanek, who gave up the tying run. With two outs, Stanek made way for Ryan Helsley, who was the victim of some terrible luck. Ronny Mauricio made an error behind him and then Helsley should have been out of the inning, but a pitch clock violation was called on him after the play (a groundout) was already over. On the following pitch, William Contreras homered to put the Brewers up 7-4. Stanek had just one other outing last week. He pitched 2/3 of an inning in Friday’s game. Helsley’s week started out on a positive note; he pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning with two strikeouts in Tuesday’s one-run loss. But Saturday’s outing happened and things didn’t go well for Helsley on Sunday either. He entered the eighth inning on Sunday with a one-run lead. He walked the leadoff hitter, recorded the first out, but then gave up a single. He struck out the next batter for the second out, but then gave up a game-tying single to Joey Ortiz. Edwin Díaz replaced Helsley and got the final out of the eighth to keep the game tied, but gave up a walk-off solo homer to Isaac Collins in the bottom of the ninth. For that, Díaz took his second loss of the season. His other outing last week was a better one. In Monday’s game, he pitched a scoreless ninth inning to send the game to extras. But Helsley gave up two runs in the tenth—the victim of bad luck again. Neither of the runs were earned because of the ghost runner and because of a throwing error by Brett Baty.
Sean Manaea started Monday and Sunday’s games and didn’t really pitch well in either of them. He cruised through the first five innings of Monday’s game, but as has been the theme for the starters lately, things fell apart on him very quickly in the sixth. In the blink of an eye, Manaea and the Mets found themselves 5-0 down in the sixth. Manaea avoided taking the loss because the Mets came back to tie the game before losing in extras. On Sunday, his outing was even shorter—just four innings. In much the same way, Manaea pitched three scoreless innings and then the Brewers put up a three spot on him in the fourth. With the Mets still up 6-3, Manaea came back out for the fifth, but gave up a leadoff single as was removed from the game in favor of Garrett, who gave up the homer that brought the Brewers within a run. And of course, the Mets would go on to get walked off.
Overlooked is the work that Brooks Raley and Tyler Rogers did in relief in both Monday and Sunday’s games. When Manaea was unable to get out of the sixth on Monday, Raley struck out Austin Hedges to finally put the inning to bed. Rogers then contributed a scoreless seventh. On Sunday, both pitchers earned holds for a scoreless sixth and seventh inning respectively before things went south in the eighth and ninth. Rogers also contributed a 1-2-3 sixth inning in Saturday’s game. Both pitchers appeared in Friday’s game and recorded three outs apiece. Raley hit a batter with a pitch to force in a run in the fifth, but that run was charged to Kodai Senga. He then bounced back to record the final two outs of the inning and the first out of the sixth as well. Rogers worked around a walk to pitch a scoreless eighth inning to give the Mets a fighting chance. The only bad part of Rogers’ week was in Tuesday’s game in which he took the loss for allowing the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, but he’s still in the green for four out of five of his appearances for the week being good ones.
Clay Holmes started Tuesday’s game and put together arguably the best performance of all the starters, which isn’t saying much, but it is something. Holmes gave up two runs on three hits in five innings of work, striking out six batters and walking one. Unfortunately, he wasn’t given much run support by his offense.
Gregory Soto followed Holmes on Tuesday with a 1-2-3 sixth inning in what was another good week for him in a Mets uniform. Soto earned his 21st hold of the season for a scoreless fifth inning in Sunday’s game, coming in immediately following Montas. Soto also contributed a scoreless seventh inning in Friday’s game, working himself out of a jam to keep the game close.
Kodai Senga started Friday’s game and much like the rest of the rotation, abruptly melted down in the middle innings. To lead off the inning, Blake Perkins hit a dribbler in front of the plate and Senga bobbled it, allowing Perkins to reach first base on the error. That proved to be Senga’s undoing. He promptly gave up a game-tying two run homer to Brice Turang and then couldn’t put the inning to bed. To be fair, there was a catcher’s interference in there as well, prolonging the inning even further, but Senga came out of the game after just 4 1/3 innings of work. He gave up three runs, but only one of them was earned. He struck out two and walked three in the outing.
