Marcus Stroman‘s recent skid continued in an alarming 6-2 loss to the Pirates on Saturday at Citi Field.
Playing at an All-Star caliber level, Stroman has been a key cog in a Mets rotation that has ranked as one of the best in all of baseball in the first half of this season, despite the raft of injuries that refuse to go away.
However, after pitching to an impressive 2.32 ERA through his first 15 starts, Stroman has been brought back to earth in his last three starts.
While his previous two starts were just blips, this one on Saturday was a little more worrying given that it came against the lowest scoring team in the majors.
Despite that fact, though, the Pirates beat up on both the Mets and on Stroman in Game 1 of a double-header, the first time in five straight doubleheaders that this team had dropped the first game.
It was actually a pretty decent start for Stroman who was perfect through the first three innings, making easy work of the Pirates lineup in the second inning armed with a 1-0 lead.
He then forced grounders and struck out the third batter to remain perfect through three, but that’s where the trouble began.
Adam Frazier, who will be heading off to his first All-Star game after this weekend and who is also a reported Mets target ahead of the Trade Deadline, led off with a single in the fourth inning and, while Stroman did strike out Ben Gamel for the second out, John Nogowski blasted a 3-1 sinker down the left field line and past the diving glove of Jonathan Villar to score two runs.
With the game tied up heading into the fifth thanks to Villar’s third homer in just two days, Stroman appeared to be on a roll with two outs until Tyler Anderson bashed a home run over the right field wall to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead.
After that setback, Stroman was replaced by Trevor May in the sixth with three earned runs allowed on five hits with five strikeouts and 68 pitches his final stat line.
It marked only the fourth time in 18 starts this season that the 30-year-old allowed as many as three earned runs, while it has now been three straight starts that he has failed to go more than five innings.
“A regular game, he probably gives us seven innings the way he was throwing the ball,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said after Game 1.
Stroman has now pitched to a 5.54 ERA over his last three starts and the fact that he gave up a couple of homers to the most offense-shy team in MLB can be viewed as a concern, but it is worth remembering a couple of factors.
Firstly, Stroman has logged nearly 100 innings already this year after sitting out the 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns so he’s probably feeling it a little while, secondly, he recently lost his Grandmother, so you can’t blame the pitcher if his focus has been elsewhere as of late.
But, with the All-Star break now upon us, Stroman now has the chance to rest both his body and his mind ready for what will be a crucial second half of the season for the Mets.
“I think it’s a little random, a little workload, I was dealing with that hip and my body felt a little off the last three or four starts,” Stroman said after Game 1.
“I think these next six days, seven days that I will have off will be incredible for my body as far as recovery.”
And let’s hope that is the case because the Mets will need Marcus Stroman to be at the peak of his powers both down the stretch and in the postseason.
