Steven Matz‘s second start after his two-week injured list stint was very impressive. Matz’s last start against the Nationals he kept them to zero earned runs in five innings of work. Ultimately, it was an odd, yet impressive outing from Steven.

Matz threw six innings of one-run baseball on Thursday in the Mets 6-4 win despite giving up ten hits in the process. Matz threw 88 pitches today, 27 of them were curveballs, 16 of those were called strikes. In Thursday’s game, he threw the most curveballs in a game since his start on April 7, 2018 against the Nationals. His previous season-high for curveballs thrown was 14. If you remember correctly, Matz’s curveball was the pitch giving him trouble before his IL stint, so it is great to see him doing better and being more confident in that put away pitch.

Steve Gelbs of SNY asked about the amount of curveballs he threw during the game, specifically if it was a plan going into the game or if that was the stuff he had, “it was just what I had going today.”

Matz mentioned that he figured that out in the bullpen that he had before the game that was the pitch he was working well with.

This was one of Steven’s best outings given his ability to compose himself on the mound and dominate even with runners in scoring position, and this game gave him plenty of opportunities to do that. He held he Nationals to just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position on Thursday.

Steven has struggled to contain himself  during starts and usually has been able to let out some anger during start at the plate, but went 0 for 2 in his attempts. Thankfully he contained himself well during his time on the mound which is a giant step in the right direction in Matz’s career.

Mickey Callaway explained that Matz had an “unbelievable” outing today, “This is a huge leap for Matzy as far as his ability to shrug things off, focus on that in between pitch routine. I could see it in his face…He stayed under control and understood ‘I just needed to execute pitches’…”

Matz spoke about how he was able to work through tough innings today,”Just focus on making the pitch, twice I was just one pitch away, able to get ground balls and double plays.”

Matz now has a 1.50 ERA at home this season and his ERA for the season is 3.63. He has a 4.62 FIP and a 1.27 WHIP in 44.2 innings. We are seeing a lot more promise from Matz this year working out of jams and having more confidence in his pitches.