Rick Porcello improved on his last start during his performance Friday night, but still was not the pitcher the Mets need him to be in order to be successful in 2020.
Porcello struggled early, getting two quick outs before allowing a single to recently COVID recovered Freddie Freeman.
This base hit opened the flood gates, as Marcell Ozuna singled and Matt Adams followed with a base hit of his own to knock in the first run of the game, putting runners at the corners with two down.
After getting ahead 0-2 on Travis d’Arnaud, he left a breaking ball over the center outside part of the plate that was smashed up the middle, driving in the second run of the inning, putting the Braves up 2-0 early.
Porcello settled down in the second, retiring Adeiny Hechavarria and Ender Inciarte on strikeouts. After a Ronald Acuna double, he struck out Dansby Swanson for his third strikeout of the inning.
The third flew by for the Mets newly acquired starter, as he struck out Freeman before getting Ozuna and Adams to fly out.
His fourth frame was when the pitch count began to get in the way.
Back to back walks gifted to d’Arnaud and Austin Riley brought up Hechavarria for a scoring opportunity.
Porcello settled down, however, and retired Hechavarria, Inciarte, and Acuna in a row to end the fourth without a score for the Braves.
Porcello did start the fifth but was quickly pulled after a leadoff walk to Swanson and a fielding error that allowed Freeman to reach base with no outs.
Porcello threw 82 pitches, 48 of which were strikes.
He went 4.0 innings, allowed five hits, and three earned as a run came into score in the fifth that was tallied towards him.
For a guy normally known for his control and ability to pitch through counts, tonight’s performance was not the Porcello the Mets need in order to stay competitive.
Although he was able to get out of jams with minimal damage, his pitch count through four was quite high, and needs to come down for him to be considered as a solid middle-rotation option for New York.
