In his 30th and final appearance of the year, Steven Matz made sure to go out on a high note. The lefty allowed just one walk and three hits through six shutout innings, striking out eight while lowering his season ERA to 3.97 in the Mets’ 1-0 extra-innings victory over the Miami Marlins.

Despite the 5-11 record, it’s hard to treat Matz’s year as anything other than a confident step forward under the guidance of manager Mickey Callaway and pitching coach Dave Eiland. He ended his year with eight consecutive starts of three or fewer earned runs, and while he only cracked seven innings twice in that span (and four times overall, for that matter), he still showed tremendous progress, averaging 10.4 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 while holding opposing hitters to a paltry .171/.232/.336 line. Matz also allowed just three stolen bases across those eight starts – none in last night’s go-around.

Matz’s first inning was a tad shaky, as the story has been just about all season. Miguel Rojas opened the game with an infield hit, and Peter O’Brien would later draw a walk to put runners on first and second as Lewis Brinson came to the plate. The Stony Brook native fell behind Brinson 2-1, just as he had to O’Brien prior to the free pass, but fought right back to get him swinging at that refined sinker of his to end the frame.

Nine of the next ten Marlin hitters to come up against Matz were promptly retired – four on strikeouts – as a Starlin Castro double to lead off the fourth proved to be the only remote damage. Just four of Matz’s eight punchouts came on the sinking fastball, with three more as curveballs and one lone changeup to freeze Brian Anderson and close the second inning in style.

The lefty threw 61 of his 97 pitches for strikes, but came out following the sixth, leaving the fate of his 0-0 ballgame in the hands of Tyler Bashlor before Drew Smith, Anthony Swarzak, Jerry Blevins, Jacob Rhame, and Daniel Zamora all combined with another seven innings of no-run baseball.

Matz’s two worst starts of the summer – one in Washington and one in Philadelphia after being activated from the injury he sustained in Washington – ultimately cloud what was otherwise a remarkable stretch of quick, resilient pitching between May and the end of the year that had otherwise never been seen from him.  Hopefully, if he can stay healthy, Matz can continue to grow as a reliable middle-to-back-end piece in a more competitive Mets’ rotation.

Relative to the rest of the fourth starters in the division (Anibal Sanchez in Atlanta, Vince Velasquez in Philadelphia, Tanner Roark in Washington, and Wei-Yin Chen in Miami), Matz could be a critical piece in the Mets’ efforts to turn things around in a more competitive 2019 season.