Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports
Tylor Megill was one of the lone bright spots in the New York Mets’ 6-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday afternoon.
After six innings of one-run ball from starter Taijuan Walker, he, David Peterson, and Drew Smith all combined to give up five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to put the game out of reach for the Mets.
Megill came on in the eighth and used 11 pitches to induce a couple of groundouts and a pop out to put together a 1-2-3 inning.
Megill’s clean inning comes in only his second appearance back since being placed on the injured list for a shoulder strain on June 17. It was an improvement from his first appearance against the Brewers on Monday. At that time, Megill took the mound during the seventh inning in the midst of a perfect game, and he promptly gave up a double and later a two-run home run.
During the month of April, Megill was the Mets’ best starter behind Max Scherzer as he went 4-0 with a 1.93 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 28 innings. However, after combining for the second no-hitter in Mets history on April 29, Megill struggled in his starts and also struggled to stay on the mound.
Megill gave up 11 runs in 6 2/3 innings (14.85 ERA) in two May starts before being placed on the injured list with right biceps inflammation. After coming back in June, he only made two more starts in which he gave up six runs in 6 2/3 innings (8.10 ERA) before going on the injured list again with the aforementioned shoulder strain.
Megill is new to the bullpen role at the major league level as it is also just his second relief appearance in his brief 28-game career with the Mets. He has shown flashes of great pitching at times during these last couple season and the Mets will hope to receive some of that production in this new role as they battle for the division with the Atlanta Braves during the stretch run of the season.
