USATSI_10135448_168381790_lowres

Game Recap June 28: A Breath of Fresh Air

The struggles of the Mets’ starting pitching this season has been well-documented. Going into last night, the team’s starting pitcher ERA was 5.05, the third-worst mark in the majors. This is horrendous and unexpected, but we’ve talked about it enough. But I also stumbled upon something else yesterday. Do you want to see something frightening? Something so bad that it will literally keep you up at night wondering how this happened? I must warn you that this is not for the feint of heart, or queasy folks out there.

Worst Starting Pitcher Seasons In Mets History By ERA-:

Untitled1

Yes, before last night’s game, the 2017 Mets starters were tied with the 1963 Mets starters for literally the worst adjusted season at run-prevention in franchise history. The 1963 Mets went 51-111. The 1964 Mets, who this group is worse than, went 53-109. The 1982 Mets went 65-97. The 1965 Mets went 50-112. You’ll have to go all the way to No. 18 on that list to find a Mets team that finished with a winning record, and that was the 2006 Mets with an ERA- of 107. And that team was undone by its lack of pitching.

This is the worst case scenario, and then some. This rotation was a fresh, beautiful car. It had an 8-cylinder engine with a pristine paint job, and it even spat fire. We gave it a superhero nickname and everything. We flaunted it. And then we opened the door one day and found out that the car was infested with spiders. Then the spiders all jumped out at once and ate our face and ruined our lives.

But last night, Steven Matz gave us all a breath of fresh air. There haven’t been too many strong starts by the non-deGrom faction of the Mets’ rotation this year, but last night, the Long Island kid gave the Mets seven impressive shutout innings. He struck out four and walked only one in his best start of the season. Josh Edgin pitched a scoreless eighth and Chasen Bradford followed suit in the ninth, and the Mets won just their second shutout of the season, with their first coming May 19 against the Angels in a game started by—you guessed it—Jacob deGrom.

So thanks to Steven Matz, this Mets’ starting rotation is no longer tied for the worst single-season ERA- in Mets history. For now.

On offense, the Mets were rolling from the get-go as well. A two-run homer by Asdrubal Cabrera in the first inning got the Mets out to an early 2-0 lead, and an RBI single by Jose Reyes later in the inning put them up 3-0. The team then stagnated at just three runs, though, until the seventh when they exploded for three more. An RBI single by T.J. Rivera scored one, and that was followed up by a two-run bomb by Curtis Granderson, his third in as many days, to blow it open to 6-0. The Mets added two more in the eighth on a single by Brandon Nimmo, and that was that.

The win was the Mets’ fourth in their last five games, though they still might as well be a light year away from a playoff spot, and this team having moderate success against other bad teams shouldn’t really boost anyone’s confidence in them.

OTHER NEWS OF THE DAY

Robert Gsellman was placed on the 10-day disabled list after suffering a hamstring strain Tuesday night, and in his place comes yet another installment of the Matt Reynolds odyssey. Reynolds has now been recalled 37 times this season, which is an accurate number that you should definitely not fact-check.

TODAY

The Mets look to take the rubber game in Miami and take back third place in the division. Seth Lugo goes up against Jose Urena at 7:10 p.m.

Photo credit: Steve Mitchell – USA Today Sports

Related Articles

Leave a comment

Use your Baseball Prospectus username