Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Chris Bassitt did what a starting pitcher is supposed to and that’s give his team the best possible chance to win on Friday night.
While the Mets bats went cold again in a 5-2 loss to the Marlins at Citi Field, Bassitt turned in a solid outing on the mound, despite the fact he hadn’t pitched in 13 days. He went deep into the game and did everything he could to help his team win.
Bassitt was able to pitch into the seventh inning and threw 93 pitches, which is pretty impressive considering the long layoff in-between starts. And fatigue never really proved to be an issue for the righty who did a lot of cardio work behind the scenes to ensure he was ready to go on Friday.
“I would just say fatigue (when asked what the biggest challenge was) but I did a lot of cardio so that wasn’t really an issue,” Bassitt said. “I felt really good.”
Bassitt flew through a 1-2-3 first inning as he retired the side in order, although he did run into a considerable amount of trouble in the second. After giving up two singles to Jesus Aguilar and Avisail Garcia, Bassitt went to his cutter but Bryan De La Cruz was able to get to it for a double to score one and give the Marlins an early lead.
To give credit to Bassitt, the veteran starter did recover by forcing out consecutive ground balls to escape the second without incurring any more damage, although he ended up throwing 40 pitches in that inning alone. De La Cruz’s double also snapped 17 consecutive scoreless innings by Mets pitchers.
Three more grounders secured a one-two-three inning in the third for Bassitt, and he continued to deal in the fourth by striking out Jesus Sanchez with a four-seam fastball that he enjoyed a lot of success with. The fastball, along with the slider, both elicited a 36 percent whiff rate, although Bassitt did do a good job of rotating all of his pitches.
“Just keep them off balance for the most part,” Bassitt said when talking about finding his rhythm after the first couple of innings. “I mean, outside of a couple of the pitches I threw that I really like, it was just mixing speeds, mixing locations.”
Bassitt did run into some more trouble in the top of the fifth and it was a familiar face as De La Cruz doubled for the second time in the game. The Marlins’ outfielder ended up going 3-for-3 with three doubles and an RBI against Bassitt. Miguel Rojas also singled to put two on base for Miami but, as he did in the second, Bassitt was able to get out of the inning without suffering too much damage. Joey Wendle‘s sacrifice fly to score De La Cruz did make it a 2-1 game.
It was another one-two-three inning in the sixth but, after De La Cruz crushed his third double of the game in the seventh, Bassitt’s night was over and he talked after the game about the challenges of facing the Marlins third time through the order.
“Yeah, I mean they didn’t completely know my routine, my pitch selection, basically everything, so I would say it’s a lot harder to be efficient,” Bassitt said. “But I think sometimes it’s a blessing because you really see what they’re trying to do against you, rather than you kind of just forget about it if you face them a month from now kind of thing. It’s a challenge but it’s also pretty fun.”
Overall, it was a solid outing from Bassitt and the fact he was able to go deep would have been pleasing for the Mets, who are starting to see their rotation get back to full strength with the second-half of the season rapidly approaching.
