Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
The New York Mets sent Marcus Stroman to the mound to face off against the Arizona Diamondbacks Tuesday night in the second game of a three-game series. Stroman was rolling early on in Arizona, continuing to show why he’s one of the best ground ball pitchers in baseball.
Six of the first nine outs were from the ground ball, as Stroman’s ground ball rate continues to be atop the league.
Stroman worked around a hit per inning through the first three innings, giving up a single in each of the the first two, with his first extra-base hit allowed coming in the third inning when Ketel Marte doubled. The trend continued for Stroman into the fourth inning, as he once again gave up just one single but left the frame unscathed.
It was not until the fifth that Stroman worked clean frame, recording his fifth strikeout of the game in the 1-2-3 inning. The right-hander ultimately ran into real trouble in the sixth, facing the top of the lineup for the third time.
Marte and Eduardo Escobar led off the inning with a pair of singles, before David Peralta struck out swinging for the first out. Trying to work his way out of the jam with another ground ball, Stroman then left a sinker out over the heart of the plate to Pavin Smith and the first baseman did not miss it, crushing a three-run homer.
Having been staked to a four-run lead, Stroman still exited the game in line for the win, but the bullpen was unable to make it stand up. Ultimately the night came down to one mistake for the Mets No. 2 starter, as that home run really made all the difference.
“That’s how the cookie crumbles sometimes.” Stroman said after the game.
Stroman thought he threw the ball well all night, but just missed with one bad pitch.
All told, Stroman went six innings, allowing three runs off six hits with no walks. He struck out six batters and threw 90 pitches, 67 of them being for strikes. With the three runs allowed, Stroman’s ERA rose to 2.66 on the season. He has now gone at least six innings in eight of his 11 starts on the year.
Stroman praised James McCann and Tomas Nido for all of the hard work they’ve done behind the plate this season.
“Nido has been unbelievable, so has McCann. I just want to throw a huge shoutout to those guys, they’ve been rock solid back there.”
In light of Noah Syndergaard being out of at least a month and a half, and Carlos Carrasco out for the foreseeable future, the Mets will need Stroman to continue to shoulder the load atop the rotation with Jacob deGrom.
