WHOA, MAN!
Met staff takes another hit as hip forces out Marcus
High above Citi Field, the clouds broke away and the sun started shining after a long day of rain. But on the ground, the situation surrounding the Mets rotation only grew more turbulent.
Marcus Stroman left his start in the second inning with left hip soreness, the Mets announced during their 3-0 loss to the Braves on Tuesday at Citi Field. He recorded only three outs and threw 21 pitches before Luis Rojas, Jeremy Hefner and a trainer emerged from the dugout to check on him. Stroman chatted with the group and twice attempted to stay in the game by throwing practice pitches off the mound. No-go. The staff determined it was best for him to exit early.
He believed he hyperextended his hip when he landed, Rojas said. The skipper said Stroman will continue to be evaluated and it’s too soon to tell whether he’ll go on the injured list. Stroman was not made available for comment on Tuesday.
Stroman trudged into the dugout to clusters of boos from a Citi Field crowd that was evidently tired of the recent barrage of injuries to the team’s pitching staff.
He joined Joey Lucchesi (season-ending Tommy John surgery), Jeurys Familia (right hip impingement) and Robert Gsellman (right lat tear) as Met pitchers to sustain injuries in the past few days alone. Other pitchers among the wounded include Jordan Yamamoto, Tommy Hunter, Dellin Betances, Carlos Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard.
“This baseball season is a little bit unusual even though you expect some things to happen,” Rojas said. “I think we’ve handled it the best way.”
While there is no word just yet on how significant Stroman’s hip soreness may be, the last thing the Mets — a club that is currently in a stretch of three doubleheaders in seven days and, more broadly, 33 games in 31 days — needed was for one of their most reliable starters to suffer an injury.
Tonight, which would have been Lucchesi’s turn through the rotation, will feature a new callup in right-handed prospect Tylor Megill getting the nod against the Braves. Megill has recorded just nine outings above A-ball. He has a 3.35 ERA through eight starts between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse this year. The 25-year-old was picked by the Mets in the eighth round of the 2018 draft and will make his major-league debut.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s been doing down there so he can translate it here,” Rojas said. “We need it right now.”
Stroman has a 2.32 ERA across his first 15 starts of the season. It’s his best 15-start stretch in his career, by that measure. Stroman had entered his outing against the Braves having allowed just two earned runs or fewer and pitched five innings or more in 11 of his 14 starts this year, which is tied for sixth-most in the majors. Stroman is one of only two Met starters who have, at least so far, avoided the IL this year.
These days, the best chance the Mets have at winning is when their staff is nearly flawless. The Mets offense, which has scored just 13 runs in the last eight games, was nowhere to be found against Charlie Morton and the Braves on Tuesday. Jeff McNeil, Francisco Lindor, Dominic Smith and James McCann combined to go 1-for14 at the plate. One of the team’s two hits of the night came from pinch-hitter Jerad Eickhoff, who started Game 2 of Monday’s doubleheader.
“We’ve faced really good pitching the last two outings,” Rojas said. “We can’t give up on our offense. I think guys are going to connect, good at-bats, tomorrow. We expect that.”
The Mets (37-31) were shut out for the second straight game and the fourth time in the last six days. They’ve lost six of their last eight games and they haven’t scored a run in 17 straight innings. During a stretch of 16 consecutive games against NL East divisional opponents, the Mets were given the opportunity to create a serious cushion in first place. Instead, they’ve gone 2-5 to start what may be the most difficult, and important, pair of weeks in their 2021 schedule.