Steven Matz continued to build off his recent success this afternoon, lowering his season ERA to 3.31 (now good for 10th in the National League) with six and one-third innings of one-run, five-strikeout ball.
After a 29-pitch first inning, the lefty walked just one batter through the rest of his day, allowing just four other hits before exiting with 110 total pitches under his belt. Matz has now eclipsed 95 or more pitches in seven consecutive starts, the first such achievement of his career.
Unfortunately, despite yet another gritty performance – one in which he exited to a standing ovation, no less – Matz was charged with the loss. Shoddy defense and embarrassingly futile at-bats against opposing pitcher Blake Snell combined to trap the Mets’ starter, but that’s not to say Matz didn’t fight his way through and come out atop a handful of tight situations.
A fairly standard combination of weak tap hits and poorly-located fastballs put Matz in a bind in the top of the first, culminating in the lefty missing the strike zone with five straight fastballs to load the bases.
Getting creative with his breaking pitches and re-tuning his fastball, Matz was able to strike out noted lefty-killer (and Met-killer… 59 RBI in 72 career games) Wilson Ramos with an aptly-spotted curveball, and worked out of a 3-1 count against Adeiny Hechavarria to induce a popout to right field.
The pattern of running into trouble and immediately squashing it dead in its tracks repeated itself over the next four innings, making it all the more encouraging to look at Matz’s final line and understand not only how tightly he held his own, but even more so how efficient he was in such dire times during today’s start. After the game, Matz admitted, to struggling with his command in the early-going, but was still resolute:
“It was definitely erratic, especially early on. The ball was up a lot… hitting and walking an American League pitcher, that stuff can’t happen, but I was able to scuffle a little bit… the goal is to have confidence, results aside. But results definitely help… The biggest difference has been attacking guys with what I’ve got today. Just adapt.”
Every inning from the second to the fifth, Matz allowed a double.
Even with some clear kinks in the armor, however, only one such runner, Matt Duffy, would come around to score, but even then, was aided by a miscue from Amed Rosario, who bobbled a Ramos grounder with the infield in, thus allowing Duffy to come home uncontested as the Mets instead settled for a 6-3 putout.
Carlos Gomez led off the second inning with a double and soon found company at first after Snell (0-for-7 in his career at the plate entering today) was hit by a pitch with one out, but the two were both stranded as Matz would pry out two routine grounders on five pitches.
After retiring his first two hitters in the third, Matz was staked to a sharp double off the bat of C.J. Cron, but quickly averted a crisis by inducing a weak grounder to first.
Things followed a similar path in the fourth inning after Johnny Field notched a two-bagger with one out, but Matz, unshaken, struck out his opposite number and subsequently managed a Kevin Kiermaier flyout to left.
Even with Matz’s lone run scoring in the fifth, the lefty only needed 13 pitches to make his way back to safety. He followed with a three-up, three-down, 12-pitch sixth, capping it off with a beautiful changeup to whiff Field.
“His changeup has obviously been really good,” manager Mickey Callaway added when asked about the specifics of Matz’s maturation through the first half. “I think his curveball’s been coming along, but [Matz’s] ability to throw the fastball in against a righty is what sets him apart. His ability to bring it along the inside corner really allows him to execute the changeup away and keep guys off balance.”
Even considering the fact that Matz led off the seventh by losing Snell to a walk, he welcomed the top of the order back into the fold by exploiting Kiermaier with a fantastic curveball in the dirt, triumphantly leaving his manager Mickey Callaway with the ball, and his team with yet another open door that nobody in the lineup could run through, as fate has had it seemingly every day since the losing first started.
“That’s what happens when you become a really good pitcher instead of a guy who just goes out there, pitches, and has success every now and then,” Callaway added in his postgame presser. “If we win just five games of deGrom’s, Matz’s, and Wheeler’s – and that’s being conservative – we’re right where we wanna be, and that just hasn’t happened – but they’ve given us every chance to win.”
It’s certainly frustrating to know that Matz has just a 4-6 record to his name despite making remarkable strides, just as he did in today’s contest. Nonetheless, with the mentality the lefty has molded for himself as he continues to thrive under pressure, it’s been a pleasure watching Matz continue in his own maturation process, and it’s led to more than a healthy season.
With runners on, opposing hitters have managed a .149 average against Matz in his last dozen starts. For Matz, the first half has been a masterclass in resilience.
