Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized
On Thursday, Jose Butto made his first start since a spot opened up within the Mets rotation due to the injury to Jose Quintana. Simply put, it did not go well. On his first pitch, Jose Altuve took Butto deep to left field in what was a 3-run first inning for Team Venezuela. After Altuve took him deep, Ronald Acuña Jr. gave one a ride but it stayed in the park for Tim Locastro to track down.
From there, things did not get any either. Eduardo Escobar singled, Gleyber Torress walked, Omar Narváez singled home a run, and the craziness was capped off with a Luis Rengifo single that kicked off the second base bag, scoring the third run of the inning.
The Mets threatened but did not score in the bottom half of the first, which allowed the Venezuelan team to extend their lead to 4-0 in the top of the second after Altuve went yard again. He saw two pitches from Butto on the day and took both deep to left field.
Butto worked himself into some more trouble in the third inning, walking the leadoff man Narváez before being pulled after 54 pitches. He struggled all over the board. He was unable to limit base runners, the long ball, or keep a good command of the zone. Effectively, walks, homers, and base hits were what bit Butto.
Butto ended up on the hook for Narváez, who wound up scoring the fifth run of the game. His final line read: 2 innings, five hits, five runs, five earned, four walks, two strikeouts, and two homers allowed. Butto has now allowed seven earned over five and two-thirds innings this spring and has walked six during the same time frame.
Butto’s clunker comes on the same day that Buck Showalter said during a media scrum that the Mets do not have an anointed fifth starter yet, assuming that also means that there is no presumed favorite for the gig as of right now. Figuring that Butto was in the mix for the gig, his outing did a lot of negative work for his case to crack the top-5, mostly solidifying his stance on the outside looking in.
This comes on the heels of Tylor Megill putting in a solid outing earlier in the week, David Peterson being given a clean bill of health, and Joey Lucchesi beginning to throw again. The Mets have plenty of options so far and figure to be able to fill their fifth spot adequately, despite Butto’s struggles today.
Butto, a Venezuelan native, was honored with the chance to pitch against his home country’s team. He said he looked up to many of the players on that team currently, including Salvador Perez and Miguel Cabrera, but former Venezuelan ace Felix Hernandez was his favorite childhood player. He took great pride in being able to face the Venezuelan team, calling the moment “very special” for himself.
