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Mets forced to swap out righty after just one inning as pitching jinx continues
CINCINNATI – The Mets cannot escape their recent rash of pitching woes.
Ever since Jacob deGrom landed on the injured list with his fifth malady of the season, what used to be the club’s strength has turned into a desperate hodgepodge of rotation arms. Over the last three games, Mets starting pitchers have combined to throw five innings. Righthander Robert Stock was the latest to leave his start after just one inning in the Mets’ 4-3 loss to the Reds on Tuesday night.
Stock, whom the Mets claimed from the Cubs a month ago, left after
21 pitches with a right hamstring injury. The
Amazin’s needed Stock to cover at least nine outs due the limited availability of just about every other innings-eater. Instead, he retired just three batters and gave up a home run and two hits before departing with a trainer in his second start as a Met.
“We don’t know how serious, and I definitely don’t know how serious,” said fill-in manager Dave Jauss on the severity of Stock’s hamstring injury. Jauss managed his second game Tuesday for Luis Rojas, who was wrapping up his twogame suspension for what MLB called “excessive arguing” with umpires in the first inning Sunday against the Pirates.
As has been the case for three consecutive days, the team was forced to go to its exhausted bullpen to cover the remaining 24 outs. It’s understandable if Met fans are unfamiliar with the three pitchers who followed Stock: Stephen Nogosek, Yennsy Diaz and Geoff Hartlieb. Still, that trio kept the Mets in the game in a hitter-friendly ballpark by allowing three runs in 5.1 innings.
“I thought I threw the ball well, I thought I competed, I thought I attacked,” said Nogosek, who gave up back-to-back home runs to Joey Votto and Aristides Aquino. “Two bad pitches.”
But relying on the bullpen for eight innings every night remains an unsustainable strategy, particularly with deGrom’s unknown timeline for a return, Marcus Stroman’s five consecutive outings without a quality start, and the rotation lacking a fourth and fifth starter. Rookie Tylor Megill has become a rotation necessity, rather than a surprising minor-league call-up who makes one or two starts in the bigs.
To make matters a bit more alarming, Carlos Carrasco (torn right hamstring) struggled in his second rehab start on Tuesday for Triple-A Syracuse. The veteran right-hander allowed five earned runs on three hits – all home runs – across just 1.2 innings and 41 pitches. Carrasco was scheduled to pitch three innings in what was expected to be his final rehab tune-up before completing the rest of his progression with the Mets. It’s still possible he makes his Mets debut as soon as this weekend, but his Tuesday night outing was not exactly the result the team wanted to see in his ramp up.
So it’s convenient, then, that the trade deadline is less than 10 days away and the Mets happen to have the richest owner in baseball.
Acting GM Zack Scott, hours before Tuesday’s loss, said starting pitching will be the club’s top priority in the coming days. Reds left-hander Wade Miley picked up the win Tuesday for his eight-strikeout outing while giving up one earned run across 6.1 innings and would be a good fit for the Mets, if Cincinnati were willing to trade him. There are other arms that make sense for the Mets – Rangers right-hander Kyle Gibson, Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks and Twins right-hander Jose Berrios, to name a few.
Pete Alonso, who crushed his 19th homer of the season, talked at length about the bullpen’s effort in the face of exhaustion and adversity. Though he said he doesn’t pay much attention to the trade deadline and it’s above his pay grade, Alonso said he’ll be waiting to see what Steve Cohen and his front office decide to do.
“I think the people that we have are really talented guys that are just really anxious to get back,” said Alonso. “Carrasco, obviously Noah (Syndergaard) … We can’t wait to get those guys back. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what Uncle Steve decides to do.”
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