A quick review of how the Mets’ pitchers fared over the past week.
A lot went right on this meter compared to last week. Jonah Tong righted the ship. A green arrow has appeared next to Ryan Helsley’s name. The Holmes/Manaea piggyback experiment was successful. But sadly, it wasn’t enough.
| Player | Last week | This week |
|---|---|---|
| Huascar Brazobán, RHP |  |  |
| Chris Devenski, RHP | — | |
| Edwin Díaz, RHP | | |
| Reed Garrett, RHP |  |  |
| Dom Hamel, RHP | — | |
| Ryan Helsley, RHP | | |
| Clay Holmes, RHP | | |
| Dicky Lovelady, LHP | — | |
| Sean Manaea, LHP | | |
| Nolan McLean, RHP | | |
| David Peterson, RHP | | |
| Brooks Raley, LHP | | |
| Tyler Rogers, RHP | | |
| Gregory Soto, LHP | | |
| Ryne Stanek, RHP | | |
| Brandon Sproat, RHP | | |
| Jonah Tong, RHP |  | |
We’ll start with Jonah Tong, who is the comeback kid this week and one of the bright spots on this meter. He pitched in the rubber game against the Padres on Thursday and earned the win to even his record to 2-2. He gave up just one unearned run over five innings of work, striking out a whopping eight Padres hitters and walking none. Yeah, I’d say that qualifies as a bounce back outing.
The pitcher who provided comfort to Tong in his moment of need had a bounce back week too. Sean Manaea earned the win in Tuesday’s game for pitching the final five innings of the game in relief of Clay Holmes who yielded two runs in the form of two solo homers in the first four innings. Manaea gave up just one run and struck out four batters and walked none to help seal the deal for the Mets. The duo also both pitched on Sunday and Holmes was excellent, twirling 3 2/3 scoreless frames. He scattered four hits, struck out three, and walked none. Manaea unfortunately took the loss for giving up three runs in the second inning. The Mets got back to within a run, but were unable to overcome the deficit. Overall though it seems that Holmes and Manaea are more effective with their powers combined than separately.
The bullpen did a good job in Thursday’s game in relief of Tong and on Sunday as well. Brooks Raley appeared in both games, contributing a 1-2-3 seventh to Thursday’s victory and striking out James Wood in a key spot on Sunday. Raley is back in the green for a clean sheet across all three of his appearances; he earned the win on Friday night for retiring all three batters he faced.
Gregory Soto also appeared in Thursday’s and Sunday’s games and earns positive marks for the week. On Thursday he worked around two hits to pitch a scoreless eighth inning and then on Sunday he also pitched a scoreless eighth inning, complete with two strikeouts. He also logged two strikeouts as part of a scoreless seventh inning in Wednesday’s loss.
Soto’s outings on Thursday and Sunday both immediately preceded Edwin Díaz, who had a great week even though none of his appearances were save opportunities. Having not pitched in awhile, Díaz pitched the ninth inning of Thursday’s victory even though the Mets had a comfortable lead. But he got a lot of work over the weekend since both of those games were close. Both ended up being losses, but not because of Díaz. Díaz pitched a scoreless tenth inning in Saturday’s extra-inning loss and he struck out the side the next day to keep the Mets within a run heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Nolan McLean started Saturday’s game and pitched well, but was hurt by poor defense played behind him. The Nationals scored three runs off of him in five innings, but only one of them was earned. He struck out six and walked two in the start, which was limited to five innings because the errors ratcheted up his pitch count.
Huascar Brazobán came in the game in relief of McLean on Saturday and contributed 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Unfortunately Brazobán’s other outing this week was not as good. With the Mets having put up a six-run fourth inning to take the lead, Brazobán came in to pitch the top of the fifth inning and got the Nationals back into the ballgame by giving up a two-run homer to CJ Abrams. He recorded just one out and Brooks Raley had to come in the game to calm things back down.
That outing on Friday was in relief of Brandon Sproat, who had his worst start so far as a Met, but luckily the Mets gave him a ton of run support to bail him out. He was charged with four runs in four innings of work, striking out five batters and walking two over that span.
After Raley retired all three batters he faced, Ryne Stanek retired the next two batters—one via the strikeout—to earn his tenth hold of the season. Stanek also pitched the ninth inning in Wednesday’s loss and gave up an insurance run in the form of a solo homer by Ramón Laureano.
David Peterson started Wednesday’s game and was shaky again, taking the loss. He yielded six runs on six hits in five innings of work. Perhaps most troubling: he only struck out one batter and walked three batters. With the Mets down, Dom Hamel—up temporarily while Sean Manaea was on the paternity list between his two outings—finally made his way into a game. He gave up three hits, but managed to escape the sixth inning without giving up a run because the Mets took advantage of some poor base running by the Padres.
Ryan Helsley, who has quietly clawed his way into the green, pitched a scoreless eighth inning in Wednesday’s loss. But his other two outings this week came in higher leverage and he was successful in both of them. On Friday, Helsley earned his very first hold of the season with a 1-2-3 seventh complete with a strikeout. Chris Devenski, freshly up from Triple-A, contributed a scoreless ninth after the Mets tacked on some insurance. He worked around two hits and struck out two in the inning. Helsley also pitched a scoreless ninth in Saturday’s game. The Mets were down at the time, but they went on to tie the game in the bottom of the frame. Dicky Lovelady—another one of the fresh faces on the meter this week—also contributed 1 1/3 scoreless innings to Saturday’s game that ended up looming large and would have loomed even larger if the Mets had actually managed the comeback.
Tyler Rogers ended up taking the loss for yielding the fateful two-run inside-the-park home run to Daylen Lile in the eleventh. It was a crushing end to an otherwise good week for Rogers, who pitched a scoreless sixth inning in relief of Tong on Thursday and a scoreless eighth inning in Friday’s victory to notch his 30th hold of the season.
Category: General Sports
