Credit: Rhona Wise-USA TODAY Sports

Joey Lucchesi was able to carve out a pretty impressive outing on the mound on Saturday against the Miami Marlins, but it proved to be in vain as the New York Mets suffered a 3-1 walk-off loss in Miami.

It looked likely that the Mets and the Marlins were going to be headed to extra innings for the second straight game with the contest tied going into the bottom of the ninth, but Garrett Cooper hit a two-run home run, his second in as many days, off reliever Drew Smith to win the game for Miami and even up this three-game series.

Frustration was the buzzword of the day for the Mets and Lucchesi could only watch on as his sterling work was eventually undone, with the bullpen also doing a pretty impressive job up until the ninth inning.

Lucchesi would no doubt have also been frustrated by the fact that he was taken out of the game so early given his filthy stuff, yet a  questionable decision by manager Luis Rojas.

You only have to look at the scorecard to understand that Lucchesi should have been allowed to stay in the game beyond the fourth inning, with the 27-year-old putting together arguably his best showing in a Mets uniform.

He dazzled through four innings, striking out eight Marlins and allowing just one hit, with his impressive curveball proving a deadly and unstoppable force while his changeup also provided Miami with a plethora of problems that they just could not solve.

Lucchesi was just brilliant and, doing a good job of getting ahead in the count, he also struck out five straight hitters and he really was pitching at the peak of his powers in Miami, and the southpaw was happy his new approach paid off.

“My mindset was a little bit different today,” Lucchesi said. “I tried to keep it simple. I had a little competition inside myself in my head saying, ‘Let’s see how many times I can hit the glove today.’ I stayed stubborn with that thought in my head. That’s all I was doing.

“I was thinking too much (in the past). I just had to simplify it and told myself, get the sign and hit the glove right there. I liked the way it made me feel.”

However, for as brilliant as Lucchesi was, his stellar outing was somewhat tainted by the fact that he was pulled after just 43 pitches, with Rojas opting to go with his bullpen for the rest of the game in order to try to get the job done.

It was a decision that ultimately backfired and most wondered why Lucchesi wasn’t allowed to go a little longer given how locked in he was, although the man himself admitted that he understood why his day was brought to a premature end.

“I really wanted to keep going,” Lucchesi said. “But they are just looking out for me. That’s the longest I’ve been out there this season, I get it.

But honestly, I did feel like I could go a few more. I also get it, I need to keep being more consistent.”

Given what unfolded the rest of the way with Sean Reid-Foley entering the game to replace Lucchesi before Miami took the lead in the seventh with Aaron Loup on the mound, Rojas explained his decision to pull Lucchesi from the game when he did.

“He (Lucchesi) has been part of the bullpen for almost a week,” Rojas said. “At a point, we had him throwing sides as a starter. Not at this point. He wasn’t even doing that between starts. Last night, we didn’t know who was going to start the game. (Saturday) morning was when we committed to giving the ball to Lucchesi because he probably had the length that we needed, which is four innings, which is what he gave us today.

“We felt it was safe for him with the ups and downs, and just from our pitching coach’s experience and any concern level that we may just pushing a guy going maybe to a further up-down or pitch count after the four innings without having a side, that’s why we ended up going that way.

“We pitched really good, we had Sean Reid-Foley fresh. That’s a guy who can give us two or three like he’s done it, and we just felt like we could have connected both things happening. We can balance that thought process with Lucchesi, and then the string of righties coming in and the thought process that Reid-Foley can come in and give us multiple innings.”

While the pitching change didn’t pay off for Rojas and the Mets will now need to try to clinch the series on Sunday, there was a huge positive for the New York Mets in the performance of Joey Lucchesi, who had struggled in his previous six outings with a 9.19 ERA, but Saturday was a tantalizing taste of what the pitcher could be capable of with some work.