Nolan McLean and the Mets’ lineup made things look easy as they cruised to a 12-5 victory over the Tigers tonight in Detroit. If the team could just play like this every day, well, we certainly wouldn’t complain about it.
While the Mets jumped out to an early 1-0 lead thanks to a long solo home run by Pete Alonso in the top of the first, McLean had his worst inning since getting called up to the big leagues. He issued back-to-back walks with two outs in the inning before giving up back-to-back singles,
each of which scored a run for the Tigers.
By the end of his outing, though, that inning was a distant memory. McLean wound up throwing six innings with seven strikeouts, three walks, and having given up just three hits. He only needed 90 pitches to do all of that, which is a remarkable achievement by the standards of Mets starting pitchers this year. Had the game been closer in the seventh, perhaps he would’ve been sent back out there to try to pitch even deeper, but it wasn’t necessary to push him given all the scoring the Mets had done by then.
A five-run fourth inning turned the Mets’ one-run deficit into a four-run lead. Jeff McNeil singled in a run to tie the game at two, Cedric Mullins gave the team the lead with a sac fly, and Luis Torrens broke the game open with a three-run home run to cap the scoring in the inning.
And in the top of the seventh, the Mets absolutely rocked Tigers reliever Chris Paddack, who joined the team in a trade with the Twins at the deadline this year. Juan Soto remained red hot with a solo home run. Alonso followed that up with another solo home run of his own. McNeil singled in two more runs, Brett Baty singled in another, and Francisco Lindor hit a sac fly to bring home the Mets’ twelfth run of the night.
With all of that having transpired, Carlos Mendoza turned to Kevin Herget, who turned in a pair of scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth before allowing three runs and recording just one out in the ninth. That prompted Mendoza to call upon Ryne Stanek to finish the game, and he got two outs without allowing anyone else to score.
The Mets still have to figure out what to do with the struggling half of their rotation, but it’s amazing what some legitimate starting pitching can do for a team. The Mets haven’t been perfect since McLean came up on August 16, but they’ve gone 10-6—a major upgrade from what they’d been doing from their last July series through the first half of August. And McLean himself has a 1.37 ERA and a 2.41 FIP through his first four major league starts, having earned the win in all four of them.
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Big Mets winner: Luis Torrens, +22.4% WPA
Big Mets loser: none
Mets pitchers: +4.0% WPA
Mets hitters: +46.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Luis Torrens hits a three-run home run in the fourth, +24.o% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Wenceel Pérez singles in the Tigers’ second run in the first, -6.5% WPA
