Steven Matz looked crisp and was in complete control throughout his start Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers that led to a 7-3 victory for the Mets.
Matz really made one mistake all night. Unfortunately, he made it to the one guy that you can’t afford to make mistakes against, as Cody Bellinger crushed a two-run homer off Matz.
In that at-bat, Matz was up 0-2, but hung a curveball that Bellinger sat on and hit a mile. Matz worked around traffic in the first three innings, before throwing a clean five-pitch inning in the fourth. The lefty was great in his last three innings of work, retiring 10 of the last 11 batters he faced. The lone batter that got on was Bellinger, when Matz wisely pitched around him to lead off the sixth inning.
All told, it took Matz 93 pitches, 60 strikes, to work his way through six innings against the best offensive team in the National League. Matz walked three batters, struck out six, allowed four hits and two runs.
After the game, Mickey Callaway spoke about the left-handers’ performance at Dodger Stadium and said that it was “the best [he’s] ever seen Matz.”
Matz also helped himself by doing a great job running the bases to get the Mets on board in the third inning. After beating out an infield hit to get on base, Matz tagged up from second base on a fly out to advance to third. He then beat out a play at the plate on a ground ball to third baseman Justin Turner, scoring the first run of the game.
Matz has now made three starts since returning off the IL on May 18. During that span, he has allowed five runs across 15 2/3 innings pitched and has 19 strikeouts.
