Mets Player Performance Meter: Pitchers, May 30-June 5

If the position player meter looked good this week, the pitching meter looks just about as good. The Mets’ pitching staff shut out the Nationals twice in a row this week. Of course, it was the Nationals, but the pitchers also faired well against arguably the best offense in the National League in the Dodgers. The Mets’ two losses against the Dodgers this week were due to the offense being held in check more than anything else and there was only one true bullpen meltdown to speak of—Seth Lugo’s ninth inning on Sunday—which the Mets overcame. Over the past week, the Mets’ pitching staff holds the best ERA in the National League with a 2.47, which once again does not include any innings from Jacob deGrom or Max Scherzer.

I feel like we have to kick off this meter by talking about the ice water in Adonis Medina’s veins. I know he only made two appearances this week, but Sunday’s performance in such a massive spot earns him a fireball for this week. In the first save opportunity of his major league career, Medina had a one-run lead to protect in the tenth inning with the free runner on second base and Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Trea Turner due up. He retired Betts and Freeman on a flyout and a groundout, respectively. Trea Turner then was awarded first base on a weird catcher interference call, which brought Will Smith to the plate. Tuner stole second base, which put the winning run in scoring position. Medina struck out Smith to secure a huge series split with the Dodgers and earn his first major league save. Medina also pitched a scoreless ninth inning in Tuesday’s shutout.

Both of Medina’s appearances this week came in games started by Trevor Williams, who had a really strong week this week. He earned his first win of the season by tossing five shutout innings on Tuesday, over which he surrendered four hits and walked two batters while striking out one. Williams got a no-decision for Sunday’s effort, but he held the formidable Dodgers offense to just two runs on six hits over five innings of work. He struck out five batters and did not walk anybody in the outing. Given the way Williams has pitched, it’s hard to argue that he should be the one booted from the rotation when Tylor Megill returns (which could happen as soon as this weekend), but even if it is resuming his role as the Mets’ long man, he will continue to help the team win games if he keeps this up.

Conversely, David Peterson may be the one to lose his spot in the rotation when Megill comes back because of how poorly he pitched this week—the lone spot of red on this meter. Peterson’s issue has mostly been his inability to go deep into games. Despite being handed a huge lead on Monday, Peterson was unable to get through the fifth inning, giving up four runs on six hits through 4 ²⁄₃ innings. Peterson struck out one batter and walked four, which is not the ratio you want. Walks continue to be an issue for Peterson; he also walked four batters in an even shorter outing on Saturday. In the fourth inning with a runner on base, Mookie Betts smoked a ball just foul off Peterson and Buck Showalter yanked him from the game mid at-bat. Overall, Peterson gave up four runs in 3 ²⁄₃ innings, but only one of them was earned and he did strike out six batters to the four walks. But going deeper into games is going to continue to be the challenge for Peterson moving forward if he is going to stay in the rotation.

After Peterson’s early exit, it was up to Colin Holderman to retire Mookie Betts and he did so, striking him out looking. Holderman was awarded the win for that king-sized out—his third of the season and the second win he recorded this week. He also earned the win in relief of Peterson on Monday with 1 ¹⁄₃ solid innings. He did give up a run in the outing, but the Mets were up big at that point so it did not have an impact on the final outcome of the game. Holderman also pitched 1 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings in Thursday’s loss in relief of Taijuan Walker.

Taijuan Walker unfortunately took the loss on Thursday—his first of the season—but his performance was not the problem that night. Walker scattered seven hits and gave up just two runs over 5 ²⁄₃ innings of work. He struck out two batters and walked one in the outing. Unfortunately for Walker, the Mets were shut down by Tony Gonsolin and the Dodgers bullpen and did not give him any run support. Walker now holds a fantastic 2.88 ERA for the season.

Following Holderman’s outing in relief of Walker on Thursday, Chasen Shreve worked around a walk to pitch a scoreless eighth inning. It was a good bounce back week for Shreve, who had been struggling heading into the week. He was not scored upon in any of his three appearances this week. In Monday’s lopsided victory, Shreve tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning and he earned his fourth hold of the season for a 1-2-3 sixth inning on Saturday.

Other than Trevor Williams, Carlos Carrasco was the standout performer in the rotation this week. Carrasco followed Williams’ five shutout innings against the Nationals on Tuesday with five shutout innings of his own against them the following day. He gave up just four hits and struck out five batters. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to go deeper into the game due to five walks he surrendered. Three of those walks came in the third inning when he walked the bases full, but he managed to wriggle out of the jam by striking out Yadiel Hernandez for the final out of the inning. Carrasco earned his sixth win of the season for Wednesday’s effort.

Seth Lugo pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Carrasco on Wednesday to earn his ninth hold of the season. It was a mixed bag for Lugo this week. He followed Wednesday’s effort with a scoreless ninth inning on Saturday to secure that victory for the Mets. However, he blew a save in Sunday’s game. With Edwin Díaz having faced the fearsome top of the Dodgers order after the Mets took the lead in the eighth inning, Lugo was tasked with protecting the two-run lead in the ninth and was unable to do so. He gave up a leadoff home run to Will Smith and then a double to Chris Taylor and a game-tying RBI single to Eddy Alvarez. Lucky for Lugo, the Mets bailed him out by winning in extra innings.

Buck Showalter’s decision to pitch Edwin Díaz in the eighth inning on Sunday was not necessarily a bad one, even though Lugo ultimately didn’t hold up his end of the bargain. Díaz did his job, however, retiring the top of the Dodgers lineup in order to earn his first hold of the season. That capped off a good week for Díaz; he also tossed a scoreless ninth inning in a non-save situation on Wednesday.

Adam Ottavino also appeared in both Wednesday and Sunday’s games and pitched well in both of them. In Wednesday’s 5-0 victory, he worked around a hit and a walk to pitch a scoreless eighth inning to set things up for Díaz, earning his fifth hold of the season. Ottavino tossed a 1-2-3 sixth inning in relief of Williams on Sunday, playing a key role in that win. It was a clean sheet for Ottavino this week; he earned his second hold of the week and sixth hold of the season with a scoreless fourth inning in Saturday’s game, complete with two strikeouts.

Because of Peterson’s early exit in Saturday’s contest, it was truly a group effort from the bullpen. Drew Smith finished off a perfect week with 1 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings on Saturday, giving up one hit and one walk in the outing. Smith also contributed 1 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings to Tuesday’s victory, striking out an impressive four batters. Smith had been going through a bit of a rough period, so hopefully this is the start of another stretch of success for him.

Joely Rodríguez tag teamed with Smith in both of Smith’s outings this week. He recorded the final out of the seventh inning in César Hernández on Tuesday and then was able to bounce back from a leadoff walk to get Juan Soto to ground into a double play on the way to a scoreless eighth. Rodríguez was assisted by the double play once again on Saturday when Smith left him with an inherited runner to deal with and he gave up a a single to advance that runner to third. But then he got the lefty Bellinger to ground into a double play to end the threat and preserve the lead for the Mets. The only blemish on Rodríguez’s ledger for the week came in Friday’s game when recorded the first two outs of the seventh inning via the strikeout, but sandwiched between those strikeouts was a single by Mookie Betts, who would eventually come around to score. However, that was merely an insurance run for the Dodgers, who went on to win by a five-run margin.

It was Stephen Nogosek who allowed his inherited runner from Rodríguez to score by giving up an RBI single to Trea Turner. That run was charged to Rodríguez, but Nogosek allowed a run of his own in the eighth on a Chris Taylor solo homer—also an insurance run, ultimately. Nogosek had a good week otherwise; he finished off Monday’s lopsided victory with two scoreless innings of work, in which he gave up two hits and walked one batter. Nogosek also tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning on Saturday, helping to pave the way for the Mets’ comeback. Like Holderman, Nogosek is continuing to build more and more trust to be used in higher leverage situations.

Chris Bassitt was the starter on Friday night and was hung with the loss for allowing four runs—three of them earned—on five hits in six innings of work. All of those runs off Bassitt came via the long ball for the Dodgers—one from Cody Bellinger in the second inning and one from Zach McKinstry in the fourth inning. It wasn’t Bassitt’s strongest outing, but he did strike out eight batters and it’s not like the Mets gave him much in the way of run support either.