Could Steven Matz be the third starter the Mets have been looking for? His start in Milwaukee on Thursday was his ninth of the season, and the left-hander has yet to allow more than four runs in any of his starts. That makes for the second longest such streak in the Majors, behind only Max Scherzer.

Despite that strong streak to begin the year, Matz was coming off a rough outing against the Diamondbacks in which he allowed four runs in four innings, including two home runs. Matz bounced back against a Milwaukee lineup that has had an incredibly tough time hitting against southpaws. The Brewers’ .613 OPS against left-handers is the second worst mark in all of baseball, just north of the Mets at a dismal .590. Matz turned in six shutout innings and gave up just four hits.

Matz had plenty of traffic to deal with early, with men in scoring position in the second and third inning. The biggest jam of the night for Matz was in the third, when the Brewers loaded the bases with one out. Matz wiggled out of it with an infield popup and a flyout. Matz walked three and struck out three over his six innings.

For Matz, who has had issues limiting damage when runners get on base, it was promising to see him remain composed and work out of those tough spots.

Mickey Callaway gave high praise to Matz following the Mets’ 5-0 victory over the Brewers, “He bounced back. Didn’t really worry about what had happened and kept on making pitches. He was really aggressive tonight. You could see it on his face. We need him to do that. He did an unbelievable job tonight.”

Perhaps the biggest contributor to Matz’s aggressiveness and success in recent starts has been his sinker. According to Statcast, Matz has utilized his sinker greater than 43% of the time, and opponents are hitting just .218 against it. The average velocity of the pitch is 92.8 MPH, and against Milwaukee his sinker sat in the 93-to-95 range. He maintained his velocity throughout the entire start, touching 95 MPH throughout his six innings. Half of Matz’s 18 outs were on the ground.

In his past few starts, specifically his three since the arrival of Devin Mesoraco on May 8, Matz has gone to his sinker inside to right-handed batters often. Take this infographic from Baseball Savant, detailing Matz’s usage of his sinker to right-handed hitters from his last two starts. On the left is his May 19 outing against Arizona, and on the right details his sinker usage on May 11 in Philadelphia. Take note of the amount of pitches toward the inside corner or just off the plate.

Matz’s ability to pound the inside corner to righty hitters means hitters have to spend focus on that half of the plate, opening up the outside corner for Steven to attack with offspeed pitches. A steady trend for Matz in his recent outings has been to bust hitters inside with the fastball, then work them away with his changeup. The mix of working in and out with different velocities keeps hitters off-balance, and their recognition of Matz’s usage of the inside fastball prevents them from diving out over the plate to attack the away pitch.

The strategy, which Matz and Devin Mesoraco have been employing, was a big part of Matz’s success in Milwaukee. Mixing speeds and locations elicited lots of off-balance swings, inducing ground balls and fly balls that missed the barrel of the bat. Matz only struck out three, but there was not much hard contact against him.

Another factor for Matz’s recent success is his new catcher. Mesoraco has been a legitimate difference maker for the entire Mets’ pitching staff, but Matz appears to have taken to the ex-All-Star particularly well. In three starts with Mesoraco behind the dish, Matz is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in 15 innings. After his start against Arizona, which was his worst of the three, Mesoraco took responsibility.

“I still think it falls on me,” Mesoraco said on Tuesday, specifically referencing the 3-2, two out change-up that John Ryan Murphy put into the left field seats. “It was my job to make sure Steven knew exactly what I was thinking in a moment like that, and I didn’t do that.”

The victory places Matz’s record at 2-3 and lowers his ERA for the season to 3.80. Matz will look to build on the best start of his campaign on Tuesday, May 29 against the first-place Braves. Whereas the Brewers were among the league’s worst offenses against left-handed pitching, the Braves are baseball’s best against southpaws. They have an MLB-best .834 OPS against lefties. It will be quite the birthday present for Matz, as the lefty turns 27 that day.