Christian Scott had it working.
He’d thrown five innings of scoreless, one-hit ball against the Houston Astros. And he struck out Jeremy Peña to start the sixth.
Three straight walks ultimately doomed him and were the difference in the Mets’ 3-1 loss on Friday. Scott had a second straight subpar start — and each time, walks were the culprit. In his previous outing, he’d walked four while allowing four runs in 4 2/3 innings. This time, he walked five while permitting three runs in 5 1/3.
Christian Scott by Berto Carlo
His BB/9 is up to 4.18 for the season. In his first taste of the majors back in 2024, over nine starts, he limited hitters to 2.28 walks per nine.
“I think you see it often in guys in their first year back from [Tommy John surgery],” Mets manager Andy Green told reporters. “I don’t want to put it alone that, because he’ll take ownership and expect himself to fill up the zone. I think that’s actually fairly common. Then you see someone in him who has never walked a lot of people, and we have the anticipation that, as he gets further and further from that … the walks will dissipate.”
In over 200 minor league innings, Scott walked only a hair over two batters per nine innings.
Walks have been generally up for Scott throughout this season, starting with a five-walk outing in 1 1/3 innings in his first MLB game back from Tommy John. As a trend, they’ve been at the highest propensity lately. Scott has walked 14 in 25 1/3 innings in August.
On Friday, Scott issued a lone walk in each of the first and third innings, but he was otherwise cruising. He retired nine in a row at one point.
But Scott couldn’t keep his control in check, and it forced an early exit. He walked the bases loaded in the sixth, missing with both his cutter and sweeper. The 96th and final pitch he threw was a 3-2 cutter to Jose Altuve that missed by a healthy margin up and in.
As a whole, Scott’s return from Tommy John has been mostly successful. His velocity is actually a tick up from his pre-TJ days, and he’s striking out hitters at a much higher rate than he was in his first dose of MLB innings. He’s stayed healthy — that’s a victory in its own right — while gradually building up his ability to go deep into games.
But it’s going to be hard to get much deeper into games if he keeps running into control issues.
That’s the lone thing holding Scott back right now. If he can find the control he’s had for most of his career, he’s primed to be a premier arm for the Mets in the coming years.
