Mets Player Performance Meter: Pitchers, July 24-30

The Mets pitched extraordinarily well this week with two notable exceptions. But, two of the green arrows seen here are no longer on the team and there may be more trades yet to come.

We’ll get the bad out of the way first. Carlos Carrasco was bombed again. In the one loss the Mets took in the Nationals series, Carrasco gave up a staggering eight runs—six of them earned—in just 2 ¹⁄₃ innings of work. It was ugly. There’s not much more to say. Since the brilliant start against the Diamondbacks just before the All Star Break, Carrasco’s been about as bad as one can be. His season ERA is now nearing six and a half.

Surprisingly, the Mets almost came all the way back in that game and the bullpen held things down brilliantly...until Grant Hartwig came in the game. He gave up three tack-on runs in the ninth that put the game further out of reach. Hartwig also gave up a run in his ¹⁄₃ of an inning of work in Tuesday’s game against the Yankees, but the Mets at least came out of that one with the win. Still, it wasn’t enough for him to avoid the poop emoji.

The good news is that Carrasco and Hartwig account for pretty much the only bad pitching performances this week. The bad news that this is the last time Max Scherzer will be on these meters. At least his last start as a Met was a good one. Scherzer got the win in Friday’s game, yielding just one run in seven innings of work, striking out seven batters and walking two. He scattered six hits and the only damage off him came on a solo homer to Luis García.

This is the last time David Robertson will be on these meters too. Before the trade that sent Robertson to the NL East rival Marlins, he earned his seventh hold of the season for retiring the final two batters of the eighth inning in Tuesday’s victory over the Yankees after Hartwig failed to pitch a clean frame.

Reed Garrett, who the Mets claimed off waivers from the Orioles in June, was recalled from Triple-A to take Robertson’s place on the roster. Garrett handled the bulk of the long relief after Carrasco’s early exit on Saturday and was great, giving up just one hit in 2 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings. Garrett had solid number in Triple-A, but has struggled at the big league level so far in his career. We’ll see what he can do in a Mets uniform.

Tuesday’s game began with six shutout innings from Justin Verlander, who earns the fireball for two excellent outings this week. He did walk four batters on Tuesday, but he gave up just two hits and struck out six, earning his fifth victory of the season. He followed that up with another win in Sunday’s game, giving up just one run in 5 ¹⁄₃ innings of work. He struck out five and walked only one in that outing. As of this writing, it remains to be seen whether this is Verlander’s last appearance on these meters, but if it is, at least he went out on a high note.

Since Robertson was traded, Brooks Raley has seemingly taken over in the closing role and he appeared in both games Verlander started. The first outing did not go so well; on Tuesday he hit the first batter he faced with a pitch and then gave up an RBI double. That runner would come around to score as well, so he was ultimately charged with two runs in ²⁄₃ of an inning, though it didn’t cost the Mets the game. The rest of Raley’s week went much more smoothly. He earned the save on Thursday in the series opener against the Nationals, protecting a skinny one-run lead and then pitched a scoreless ninth inning in the following day’s victory as well. He capped off his week by earning another save on Sunday, striking out three batters and walking one in that outing.

David Peterson pitched the bulk of relief on Sunday, going two scoreless innings in total, finishing off a positive week for him. Peterson also pitched two scoreless innings in Thursday’s victory in a higher leverage situation, earning the win in that game. Peterson’s transition to the bullpen has gone pretty well, but with at least Scherzer gone and maybe others to be traded as well, he will likely be slotted back into the rotation for the rest of the way. We’ll see how that goes.

Kodai Senga pitched a fantastic game on Thursday, giving up just one run on two hits over six innings of work. He struck out five batters and walked three in the outing, continuing his streak in the green. In August and September, he may very well be the ace of the staff.

José Quintana took the loss on Wednesday, but he pitched a good game, giving the Mets a quality start. He gave up three runs—only two of them earned—on six hits in six innings of work. He walked three batters and struck out five in the outing. The Mets were simply shut down by Carlos Rodón and failed to give him any run support to work with.

Trevor Gott redeemed himself from his awful performance last week by pitching a scoreless eighth inning in relief of Quintana on Wednesday. He followed that up with a hitless eight inning on Saturday. Drew Smith also pitched scoreless innings on both Wednesday and Saturday, putting up a clean sheet for the week.

Alongside Raley, Adam Ottavino is the only high leverage arm the Mets have remaining and another guy for whom this may be the last meter I am writing. Like much of the rest of the Mets bullpen this week, Ottavino posted a 0.00 ERA in his three outings. He began his week with a scoreless ninth inning in Tuesday’s victory. On Friday night, he served as the bridge between Scherzer and Raley, working around a hit to pitch a scoreless eighth inning in that victory. He then earned his twelfth hold of the season for pitching ²⁄₃ of an inning complete with a strikeout on Sunday.

Dominic Leone appeared in two games this week and was not charged with any runs in either outing. He came in Tuesday’s game to bail out Raley in the seventh and allowed an inherited runner to score via a sacrifice fly, but did not give up any hits and stopped the bleeding there. It is worth noting that the aforementioned sacrifice fly was an absolute bullet by Giancarlo Stanton, but the ball went into a glove and that’s all that matters from the perspective of Leone’s grade for the week. Leone was also one of the parade of relievers who held down the fort in Saturday’s debacle, working around a hit and a walk to pitch a scoreless sixth inning.