Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

Eventually, you knew Tylor Megill would look human after his historic start to the season.

But despite getting “hit hard” in Tuesday’s 5-4 Mets win, Megill still looked sharp after a rough first few innings. A 1-2-3 first inning was a great start for Megill, but the San Francisco bats came alive in the second inning. The first batter of that frame, Joc Pederson, homered to center on the second pitch of the at-bat. From there, Megill allowed three consecutive singles, culminating in an RBI base hit by Jason Vosler.

The third inning brought more of the same for Megill, as a single, walk, and wild pitch put two runners in scoring position with just one out. After Pederson popped out for the second out of the inning, Brandon Crawford delivered a two-RBI base hit to center, extending the Giants lead to 4-1.

Over the next three innings, Megill settled down, allowing just one hit and one walk, allowing no runners to advance past second base. Megill’s afternoon ended with a 1-2-3 frame – just as he had started the day. By day’s end, he had allowed seven hits and four runs to the Giants offense, walking two batters as well. But with the Mets scraping together some offense of their own, Megill was off the hook for the loss. Putting numbers aside, Megill’s ability to compose himself over those middle innings after a rocky start was pivotal to the Mets staying in the game just enough to eek out the win.

“That last inning, it was impressive,” said manager Buck Showalter about Megill’s outing. “I think that’s the type of things you look for in young pitchers as much as a couple of good starts.”

Megill was mostly reliant on his four-seam fastball, throwing it just over 50% of the time. While it led to 26 swings, including a whiff percentage of 31%, he mixed in his slider (23%) and changeup (22%) as well. His fastball topped out at 96.5 miles per hour, although its average speed of 94.9 MPH was around one mile per hour slower than his fastball average speed year-to-date (96.4 MPH).

Through three starts, Megill has posted a 2.20 ERA and 0.92 WHIP. He’s done better than most would have expected as a rotation fill-in while Jacob deGrom remains sidelined. The Mets rotation has cumulatively posted an ERA under 2.00 through 12 games, and Megill has been a major part behind that success.