Met pen a bit leaky in loss
Phils win as Castro gives up HR in 10th
Ever slap box with your siblings? Or maybe your favorite cousin? Not a real scrap — no closed fists, vigor, blood drawn or hard feelings — just two tweens flailing at each other out of boredom until someone’s wrists get tired or a responsible adult pulls the plug.
If that scene sounds familiar, then you’ll know exactly how it felt watching Mets and Phillies bullpens’ Labor Day battle. Someone had to come out ahead, and the Phillies pulled out a 9-8 victory in 10 innings.
Both teams made significant investments in improving their pens to grab one of the extra playoff spots available to all who can maintain a pulse through 60 games. The Phillies relief staff, which has posted an inconceivable 7.04 ERA, added Red Sox closer Brandon Workman, while the Mets acquired Miguel Castro from the Orioles.
The talented set-up man had struck out over 34% of batters with the Orioles while limiting walks at a career-low rate. Since joining the Mets, though Castro has allowed four runs in four innings of work — including the game-winning home run to Jean Segura that dropped his new team to 19-23. There are only 18 games left in the COVID-shortened season to make a playoff run.
Castro believes that he feels fine, and made sure to let reporters know that he is excited to be in Queens during his postgame interview.
“First and foremost, I just want to thank God for the opportunity to be a Met. I’m happy here,” said Castro through translator Alan Suriel. “Physically, I feel good. But in regards to what happened today, I’m just trying to forget about it and continue working.”
“I think my biggest issue has been (mechanical) since coming here,” said Castro. “I feel like my mechanics haven’t been as sharp as they were before I got traded.”
Between Castro’s loss and Jeurys Familia’s blown save was Edwin Diaz, who continued to distance himself from his dismal first year with the team. Diaz pitched a scoreless ninth and Mets manager Luis Rojas decided not to send him out for the 10th, even though he had only thrown 12 pitches in his clean inning.
“(Last Thursday) was the first time he’s thrown two innings since 2016,” said Rojas. (Diaz had actually thrown two consecutive innings twice in 2017 while closing for the Mariners. While Rojas misstated that detail, his point about Diaz’s workload was clear.)
Though it’s hard to believe anything you see when teeing off against the Phillies’ bullpen, the Mets offense did its job to the very end.
First, they managed three runs off former Mets starter Zack Wheeler in the sixth inning, pushing him out of what was until then, a commanding start in the middle of a great first year (4-0, 2.47 ERA) with the Phillies. Then, Jeff McNeil, buried in the last third of the lineup, dug the team out of a quiet loss by clubbing a go-ahead 3-run homer.
Creating runs from the seventh hole, McNeil exemplifies the depth and potential of Mets offense. A 2019 All-Star, McNeil was statistically the best hitter on the team last year. Though his skill set could not be more different than Pete Alonso’s, their offensive production as measured by Fangraphs’ wRC+ was identical then at 143, meaning they were both 43% better than the league average.
McNeil’s rough late August slump had the career .317 hitter off his usual pace. But a .291 batting average before Monday’s match is only low for his standards, and the versatile utility-man had just hit safely in nine of his last ten games, including a homer in Sunday’s 14-run blowout. Despite his recent success, McNeil is still buried behind veteran mainstays like Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo, as well as Dom Smith, the team’s MVP to this point. That’s not an insult to McNeil as much as it’s a credit to the team’s ability to make noise at any time, which he acknowledged after his big day.
“We’re putting great at-bats together. We’re hitting the ball hard. We’re scoring lots of runs,” said McNeil. “We were down six to nothing today with Wheeler on the mound.”
“We’re where we want to be. And, you know, we just got to keep it rolling for the rest of the year.”
Meanwhile, it became clear that Mets starter David Peterson was in for a long day on, of all moments, a strikeout.
Facing Rhys Hoskins, the starter-turned-reliever-turned-starter tossed a 95 mph heater right over the heart of the plate. Hoskins had not missed that pitch, or much of any pitches, from August 18 up until Monday’s Labor Day match, with eight homers in 18 games and a 1.135 OPS to help the Phillies gain a foothold in the expanded 2020 postseason. Jacob deGrom’s record-tying 35 swinging strikes in Sunday’s blowout might fool you — all whiffs are not created equal.
Peterson unraveled, allowing three runs after the Hoskins strikeout, then two more in his second and final frame. The rookie southpaw walked four, hit Andrew McCutchen, and allowed a home run from Hoskins off a change-up in the exact same location where he got lucky — effectively ending his return to the rotation.
“Command of the fastball wasn’t there,” said Peterson of his performance. “That was one of the biggest problems for me.”
“I made a couple of mistakes. The pitch to Segura wasn’t executed” — a bases-clearing double — “and the pitch to Hoskins wasn’t executed.”
Veteran swingman Erasmo Ramirez kept the team in the game, allowing just one run in five innings of long relief. It was ultimately in vain.