From panic city to being on the verge of winning the top Wild Card spot and home field advantage. Rookie pitchers, Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo have helped to carry the Mets since their promotions to the big league club.
As injuries brought down star pitchers Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler for the season, Gsellman and Lugo have flourished.
Gsellman and Lugo entered the Mets rotation at a time when the team was trailing the Wild Card race by 5.5 games, replacing deGrom and Matz. Now they sit atop the Wild Card standings and manager, Terry Collins commends his rookies for the job they have done.
“They’ve gotten us through two months of no Harvey, no deGrom, no Matz,” Collins said. “They’ve gotten us to this point.” (MLB.com)
Gsellman, who will take the mound Friday as the Mets open up a three-game set in Philadelphia with their minds on clinching a Wild Card spot, has been terrific. He has pitched to a 3-2 record with an ERA of 2.56 and a WHIP of 1.27.
His last start against Philadelphia was his best yet, going seven scoreless innings while allowing just three hits and striking out eight. The Mets will look for a repeat performance Friday night from their rookie pitcher.
Then there is Lugo, who has been nothing short of “amazin’.” Seth is 5-0 in his last seven starts and owns a 5-2 record on the year, pitching to a 2.67 ERA with a WHIP of 1.09.
It is worth noting that prior to his promotion to the Mets, he owned a 6.50 ERA for Triple-A Las Vegas, though the pitching environment is much different there. With runners in scoring position, opponents are batting just .149 against him as he continues to be clutch with runners on base.
“They’ve pitched so well,” Collins said. “And they’ve pitched well enough that, look, you’ve got to have confidence. You get there, anybody can win. Somebody’s got to step up and pitch good. Why can’t it be our guys?”
As we approach the end of the regular season and get ready for a possible postseason, both of these pitchers have solidified themselves as capable major league starters. The pitching-rich Mets just continue to develop these great young talents where even though they lost three-fifths of their starting rotation, the team was still able to piece it together down the stretch.
