At the end of May, Steven Matz was 7-1 with a 2.28 ERA. That’s about as good a stat line as you could ask for from a pitcher in his first full big-league season. If he weren’t in a league with the Kershaws, Bumgarners and Fernandezes of the world, that could even be a Cy Young-caliber season in the making. He was on most shortlists for Rookie of the Year at this time as well.
But now, Matz’s fortunes have taken a serious tumble. He has gone 1-7 with a 4.81 ERA since the start of June. He has made it into the seventh inning just twice in that 11 game span and batters are hitting .303 against him. He has recorded a game score over 50, which is the league average, just four times during this stretch. Conversely, he has an equal amount of starts allowing at least four runs during that time frame.
The Mets are going to need to see a lot more out of Matz if they want to play October baseball this season. He stands to be a significant part of the team’s core, and you never want to see a franchise-type player with that kind of record. The Mets as a team have been in a daze since May, but they should at least be able to rely on their foundation of pitching to carry them to the occasional win or two.
There are, however, some silver linings to Matz’s recent outings: The home run he allowed to Mark Teixeira was a classic Yankee Stadium home run– which is to say it would have been a routine fly ball at Citi Field (not trying to sound like an apologist here, but it’s true). He also did not allow a hit after the second inning, and the only baserunner he allowed was a furious Teixeira. So it’s a glass half empty/half full situation for Matz, depending on what kind of a person you are. But this is becoming a bit more than a small sample size of inconsistency from the young lefty.
