Coming into last night’s contest with the Philadelphia Phillies, Steven Matz appeared to be the only remaining starter with a clean account. Noah Syndergaard yielded five runs on nine hits and three walks the night before, Jacob deGrom had suffered another underwhelming performance in Atlanta on Sunday, Jason Vargas battled through a third of an inning in the sweltering heat, and Zack Wheeler – despite a quality start Friday night – still owns a WHIP of 1.72 and an ERA north of seven. By the end of the first inning, however, Matz’s 1.65 ERA had jumped to 4.96.
The lefty faced eight batters, failing to retire as many as one, and exited at an 8-0 deficit from which the Mets would never recover (the final was an equally shameful 14-3). Just six runs were earned due to a pair of errors from Amed Rosario – one to lead off the inning and another to squander a potential double play. But make no mistake, no balls were hit particularly quietly, and all told, Philly didn’t swing and miss at a single pitch in the beatdown.
The opening error on an Andrew McCutchen grounder was tough to swallow given the lefty had gotten ahead 0-2, though it would be the first of just two occasions in which Matz enjoyed a pitcher’s count. After falling behind Jean Segura 2-1 one at-bat later, he allowed a blistering liner off the right field wall to put runners on second and third for Bryce Harper. Matz threw two balls before spotting a changeup, but promptly drilled Harper on the wrist with a fastball to load the bases.
Just a dozen pitches into Matz’s night, the first inning bugaboo had returned full-force. For those in need of a refresher, Matz’s 7.31 first-inning ERA last year was the fourth-worst among starters with as many appearances. It may also be worth noting that his last start at Citizens Bank Park wasn’t much better, as the lefty shelled out 58 pitches in two innings of four-run, five-hit ball – his first game back after his seven-run implosion in Washington, no less (which incidentally landed him on the 10-day DL with a flexor strain). It serves little consolation in the scheme of things, though, at least given the barrage that followed the hit batsman.
J.T. Realmuto doubled to center on a hanging curveball to bring in home the game’s first two runs. On the very next pitch to Scott Kingery, a visibly frustrated Matz was taken into the left-field bleachers, extending Philly’s head start to five runs.
With the bases empty at this point, the Mets appeared to have a clean slate against Cesar Hernandez, but Matz couldn’t get out of the fastball count – falling behind 2-0 and then 3-1 before walking him on a changeup down. The beat went on into the next at-bat against Aaron Altherr, to whom Matz also fell behind 2-0.
To his credit, he did bring it back to two strikes and induced a double-play ball, but Rosario’s error doomed an inning that had already dragged its way out to 28 pitches. Pitching coach Dave Eiland came out for a chat while Drew Gagnon warmed up, but there was no longer any game to protect. Matz again went to 2-0 – this time to eight-hitter Maikel Franco – before the next fastball landed in the shrubbery beyond center field to make it an 8-0 game.
We didn’t make a few plays, first and foremost, and then when [Matz] needed to make a big pitch he just couldn’t,” manager Mickey Callaway said following the loss – their fourth while allowing ten or more runs since April 7. “Rough night[s] happen from time to time, not very often, but these are rough ones. He’ll regroup and come back out next time and get after it.”
When asked to pinpoint his particular issues on the night in the postgame, Matz cited “leaving the ball up in the zone.” More specifically, “pitch execution is what went wrong. Balls up in the zone, that gives the guys a chance.”
“I gotta get ready for my next start. Just gotta wash it, address what went wrong out there, and go forward,” he added.
Matz further talked about his start in the audio clip below.
The debacle made for the first time a Met pitcher had faced eight hitters and failed to record an out since Bobby Jones suffered the same fate in 1997, and the first time for any big-league pitcher since former-Met and then-Cincinnati Red Paul Wilson imploded in a 2005 start.
Though Matz joins ignominious company with the loss, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given the general trajectory of the team’s pitching staff thus far. New York owned a 5.40 team ERA coming into the carnage – good for the second-worst in the National League. At 4.97 (12th in the NL), the starters weren’t doing much better, and it had been an even worse 7.02 across the prior week (fourth-worst in baseball). An eight-run inning sans outs brings the figure to a league-worst 9.24.
Hopefully, these issues won’t repeat themselves as each pitcher lines up for their next scheduled start. Predictive stats across the same slice of games (a 4.58 FIP and 3.87 xFIP, for example) suggest things may not continue on this path, though any start that immediately necessitates the help of a minor-league starter (much less a mix of already-struggling big-league relief pitchers) can wreck a schedule pretty severely if it becomes a regularity.
The coaching staff’s focus at this point should be directed exclusively to righting a pitching issue that – as the May and June disasters of 2017 and 2018 can attest – can sink this team altogether.
