In sharp contrast to the hitting meter, this is one of the worst pitching meters in recent memory. The pitching staff is decimated by Edwin Díaz’s suspension and injuries to Sean Reid-Foley and Drew Smith, who is likely to need Tommy John surgery that will end his season. With the exception of Luis Severino, the starting pitchers didn’t help matters by failing to go deep into games, so even in the games the Mets won this week, they needed to use a lot of bullpen. Adrian Houser has saved their bacon by continuing to be an excellent long man, but the relievers the Mets have been forced to turn to in high leverage situations have not consistently stepped up and performed.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25514226/Screenshot_2024_07_01_161110.png "Mets Player Meter: Pitchers, June 24-30 (1)")
David Peterson started Monday’s game against the Yankees and loaded the bases with nobody out in the first inning, but then managed to strike out the next three batters he faced to wriggle out of the jam. He ultimately only gave up one run in the outing, but was limited to just 4 1⁄3 innings because of a rising pitch count. He struck out eight batters, but walked five batters.
Dedniel Núñez contributed 2 2⁄3 scoreless innings in relief of Peterson on Monday and earned the victory by doing so. In fact, Núñez got two wins this week—his first two wins of the season. He also earned the win in Friday’s victory for contributing two scoreless innings of relief in that contest. Núñez has quickly risen up the ranks of this beleaguered Mets bullpen and is arguably their most reliable high leverage option at the moment.
The Mets needed two innings out of Núñez on Friday in part because the starter once again failed to go deep enough to factor into the decision. Similar to Peterson before him, José Quintana looked very shaky early but managed to work his way out of an early jam, but it cost him a lot of pitches to do so and he therefore went just 4+ innings, allowing two runs on six hits. He struck out seven batters and walked three batters.
After Quintana’s early exit on Friday, Adam Ottavino came into the game with a runner on in the fifth and nobody out. He made things interesting by allowing a stolen base, hitting a batter with a pitch, and throwing a wild pitch, but he managed to not allow any runs and keep the game tied. Ottavino also gave up just the one unearned run and nothing more in the tenth inning on Sunday, but the Mets went on to lose in the eleventh. In Tuesday’s game, Ottavino recorded the final two outs of the sixth inning after Danny Young was knocked around a bit. Ottavino’s other outing this week were less effective. He followed Núñez to pitch the eighth inning on Monday and only recorded one out in the frame, allowing two baserunners that would both come around to score.
It was Danny Young who failed to clean up Ottavino’s mess on Monday and whose mess Ottavino had to deal with the following day. All told, the Yankees had a five-run eighth inning on Monday that got them back into the game and two of those runs were charged to Ottavino and two of them were charged to Young, who loaded the bases ahead of Aaron Judge’s grand slam that made the game interesting. Young walked Juan Soto and gave up a two-run homer to Aaron Judge in Tuesday’s game, but luckily the Mets managed to win both days despite Young’s poor performance. Young was also the third pitcher to appear in Saturday’s disastrous eighth inning in which the bullpen blew the lead. He recorded the final out of that inning without incident, but then came back out for the ninth and surrendered two insurance runs. For failing to put up a zero in any of his three appearances this week, Young receives a poop emoji.
Matt Festa is the other poop emoji recipient this week. It’s very unfortunate to get slapped with a poop emoji in your very first meter, but there’s no way around how horrible Festa’s outing was on Sunday. With no other pitchers to turn to, Festa made his Mets debut under the toughest of circ*mstances—in a tie game in the eleventh inning—and it was about as disastrous as anyone could have imagined. All told Festa gave up five runs, four of which were earned due to the ghost runner. This put the game completely out of reach for the Mets and Festa was tagged with a loss in his debut.
Luis Severino was the starter on Sunday and he pitched pretty well. Though he gave up four runs in the outing, he was at least able to go seven innings, which is more than anyone else in the rotation can say this week. Eight hits with only three strikeouts is certainly not ideal, however. But it should have been enough to win the Mets the game if not for Festa’s eleventh inning meltdown post rain delay.
Adrian Houser was really the star of Sunday’s game on the pitching side and the standout performer on this week’s pitching meter in general. Houser has become absolutely indispensable for the Mets in long relief. On Sunday he contributed two scoreless innings of relief in a tie game. In Tuesday’s blowout, he earned the rare three-inning save—his first save of the season—for pitching the last three innings of that game. In that outing he allowed no runs and two hits while striking out three and walking one. For his continued excellence in long relief and being a big part of the reason the Mets are even afloat at all during this tumultuous time for the bullpen, Houser earns a fireball this week.
Sean Manaea was the beneficiary of all of that run support from the Mets’ beatdown of the Yankees on Tuesday. He earned his fifth win of the season for five scoreless innings of work. He allowed just two hits, but he walked five batters, which is why he was not able to go deeper into the game (I’m sensing a theme here). But it was still a solid performance from Manaea.
Though Matt Festa had a rough time in his first Mets appearance, Ty Adco*ck fared much better in his Mets debut this week. He contributed 1 2⁄3 scoreless innings of relief on Saturday while the Mets were still winning the game, earning his first hold with the Mets. He allowed one hit and struck out one in the outing.
That outing came in relief of Tylor Megill, who yielded four runs on five hits in 5 1⁄3 innings of work. He struck out six and walked three in the outing. Though it wasn’t quite the disaster that his previous start was, this still represents Megill’s second poor outing in a row. As a result, he was sent down to Triple-A Syracuse in favor of Christian Scott, who will start on Wednesday in his place.
Still, thanks to the offense and to Adco*ck holding the Astros at bay, the Mets led on Saturday until the eighth inning when a combination of Jake Diekman and Reed Garrett let the game get away. Diekman walked two straight batters to lead off the inning and though he bounced back to retire the next two batters, that came back to bite him. Garrett came into the game with two outs and walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. He then threw a wild pitch to force in a run that brought the Astros within one. He then allowed a backbreaking go-ahead RBI single that turned out to be the difference in the game. Two runs were charged to Diekman and one to Garrett, who took the loss on Saturday. Both Diekman and Garrett did also appear in Friday’s with the day before and pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively. Garrett came into Monday’s game with the bases loaded and gave up a grand slam to Aaron Judge that got the Yankees within two runs. But he did come back out for the ninth inning in what was now a close game and pitched a 1-2-3 frame to polish off a victory that was more stressful than it should have been.
