There was a certain “here we go again” feeling when Christian Scott allowed a first-inning homer to Jorge Soler.
The righty had been lackluster in 1 1/3 innings and walked five batters in his 2026 debut, and had already put the Mets in an early 2-0 hole going into the bottom of the second.
There was concern that Scott was on his way to another poor start. But as the night continued, the 26-year-old got comfortable and displayed his arsenal that catapulted him to top prospect status back in 2024.
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Following the two-run homer to Soler, Scott took the rubber and retired the Angels in order. He got Josh Lowe to fly out to left field, then got help from his defense on two hard-hit balls from Travis d’Arnaud and Adam Frazier to keep the Mets down by two.
While that might not have seemed like an achievement, the two innings were already an improvement for Scott. He had failed to record two innings last time out against the Twins, plus Scott showed the ability to settle in to an inning after allowing runs.
Scott had found his groove. Which was pretty evident the rest of the way through.
The Florida native wound up only allowing two earned runs through his five-inning start. He punched out eight Angels, five of which came from the third inning on.
The fastball was Scott’s best pitch Friday night. Especially his command of it. The righty threw 36 fastballs, 25 of which were in the zone for strikes. Scott also got four swings and misses on his four-seam fastball, all of which resulted in a strikeout.
Command is always going to be the main factor of Scott’s success. It was an early issue for the former Florida Gator in the Mets system, but from 2023 on, Scott has never walked more than 2.6 batters per nine between the majors and the minors. 43 of his 74 pitches Friday night were in the strike zone.
“I’m just really confident in myself and my stuff,” Scott told Steve Gelbs after his Friday start. “I know that I belong here and my stuff plays at a high level when it’s in the strike zone.”
Fastball command also allowed Scott to set up his two other primary pitches of the night: his sweeper and cutter. Scott collected three of his eight Ks on the sweeper, including a nasty one in the third inning to retire Mike Trout.
His cutter also registered a strikeout, coming against Yoan Moncada in the first inning. The cutter has been an interesting switch for Scott, who only threw two of the pitch in 2024. It’s replaced his slider early on, a pitch that Scott didn’t see any success with. He threw the slider 139 times in 2024, which batters slugged .485 against and registered a .539 xSlug.
The cutter has been a good pitch to mirror the sweeper off in the early goings of the season. The cutter is seven miles an hour faster than the sweeper and differs in horizontal movement by 13 inches.
Scott’s got the stuff to dominate the majors. And more importantly, give the Mets another threat at the back of their rotation. David Peterson, Kodai Senga, and Sean Manaea have been abysmal to start the season, and have a combined bWAR of -1.8. Getting just league-average numbers from Scott would fortify a top-heavy starting five.
The one bug-a-boo against Scott still is the home run ball. He gave up eight in 47 1/3 innings in 2024, and served one to Soler in the first inning. Still, it didn’t stop him from striking out the side in the first, and finishing Friday’s start with an eye-popping 12.8 K/9.
