Mets Player Performance Meter: Pitchers, April 23-29

Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard have found their stride and have been great. The rest of the rotation has not been great.

Jacob deGrom continues to be the ace of the staff. He threw 7 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings against the Padres on Friday night, striking out eight batters and earning the win. He was also pushed past 100 pitches in the start in an effort to save the bullpen.

Noah Syndergaard also did his part to save the bullpen, lasting 7 ¹⁄₃ innings himself in Thursday’s game, allowing just one earned run. Unfortunately, it was not enough to earn him the win, as the Mets took the loss in 13 innings.

Paul Sewald took the loss in that game, allowing one run on two hits over 1 ¹⁄₃ innings. Otherwise, though, he’s been excellent this week, posting a 1.69 ERA with five strikeouts over 5 ¹⁄₃ innings of work. He pitched two scoreless innings in Tuesday’s extra inning victory and two scoreless innings in yesterday’s game, earning a hold. His stock seems to be rising in the eyes of Mickey Callaway.

Consequently, A.J. Ramos has gotten less work this week than he had been getting earlier in the month. He has had good results this week. He appeared in two games, pitching a scoreless eleventh inning against the Cardinals on Thursday, striking out two batters and getting his batter in the eighth inning of Friday’s game, helping Jacob deGrom on the way to a win.

Jerry Blevins got his batter out in that same eighth inning and threw a scoreless inning in Saturday’s lopsided defeat.

The rotation outside of deGrom and Syndergaard have not had a good week. Zack Wheeler was the only member of the rotation to have two starts this week, to mixed results. He pitched well enough yesterday to earn the win, allowing two runs in five innings of work and striking out nine batters. He was less effective on Tuesday, going just four innings and allowing four runs on six hits. While the Mets won both of his starts, he was characteristically not very economical with his pitch count, constantly having to work out of jams, making for an early exit in both games.

Steven Matz was knocked out even earlier in his start on Wednesday, going just 3 ¹⁄₃ innings and getting tagged for seven runs on five hits. Only three of those runs were earned, however. His next start is being pushed back to Saturday due to back tightness, which may have been plaguing him during his outing this week. However, Mickey Callaway has already hinted that—like Matt Harvey—Matz’s spot in the rotation is not necessarily safe.

Fresh up (again) from Triple-A, Corey Oswalt was thrust into long relief of Matz in Wednesday’s game. He gave up two runs in 4 ²⁄₃ innings, putting forth a very workman-like effort.

Jason Vargas made his first start in orange and blue this week and to say it didn’t go well is an understatement. He was tattooed by the Padres to the tune of nine runs in 3 ²⁄₃ innings—and it could have been even worse than that, if not for some good defense played behind him on the part of the Mets. Hopefully we can chalk this bad start up to perhaps Vargas not having had quite enough work in his rehab before returning to big league action.

Seth Lugo also got smacked around a bit on Saturday in relief of Vargas. He gave up three runs in 2 ¹⁄₃ innings. However, he too pitched a scoreless inning in relief in Thursday’s extra inning game, working around a hit batsman and a walk.

Jeurys Familia blew the save in Thursday’s game, but that was the only run he gave up this week over three total innings of work. He earned his ninth save of the season in Tuesday’s extra-inning win.

Robert Gsellman’s slate is clean this week; he threw 2 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings. He earned the win on Tuesday, working around a hit and a walk.

Matt Harvey, still adjusting to his new bullpen role, holds a 4.50 ERA over 4 innings of work this week. He gave up a go-ahead run to the Cardinals on Tuesday during his two innings of work in relief of Zack Wheeler, but the Mets would ultimately come back to win. He closed out Friday night’s win against the Padres, looking shaky and giving up a home run, but getting the job done with enough cushion to work with. He also notched a scoreless inning yesterday, when he also had plenty of room for error.