Steven Matz was dominant in his third appearance of the spring, striking out three and facing the minimum nine batters in three perfect innings on Saturday afternoon.

Matz got Nationals leadoff man Trea Turner to ground out to Andres Gimenez at shortstop before striking out Victor Robles and Starlin Castro, both of which fell victim to the slider. Matz has been slowly increasing his use of the slider over recent years, using it a career-high 14.5% in 2019.

Ryan Zimmerman popped up to Dominic Smith in foul territory to start the second before Yadiel Hernandez grounded another ball to Gimenez for the second out. Matz slotted his third and final strikeout against Yan Gomes to end the frame.

Facing the bottom half of the Nationals order, Matz retired Carter Kieboom on a flyball to right field. He then showed off his defense to end his outing, getting Andrew Stevenson to ground a ball to first base that required him to cover the bag. A ground ball back to the mound off the bat of Emilio Bonifacio ended Matz’s perfect start.

Matz kept his pitch count quite low over his three innings of work, maintaining a good pace and only throwing 43 pitches. In fact, his count was so low that it didn’t seem to be enough in the eyes of pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, who had Matz continue to throw after the start was over to reach his desired level of work for the day.

“Hefner … said my pitch count was low so we’ll go do work in the bullpen, so that’s what we did. I threw I think 15 more plus warmups in the bullpen, so it’s just kind of building up, still at 60 pitches,” Matz said. “Shirt on,” he added with a laugh.

Matz has been talked about as a potential trade piece for the Mets over the past week, most specifically with the Yankees (Ken Davidoff of the New York Post). The two New York ballclubs engaged in preliminary talks about the left-hander after the Yankees starting pitching depth was flattened by the announcement that Luis Severino will need TJ surgery.

Surely his outing today could serve as a wakeup call to the Mets that trading Matz could backfire. However, the outing could also serve as a bolster to Matz’s value. The lefty starter has posted a 1.50 ERA through three appearances thus far this spring.