Despite giving back the lead twice over the third and fourth innings in Saturday night’s 5-3 win over the Colorado Rockies, Steven Matz had another fine day at the office.
The 28-year-old left-hander picked up his fifth win of the season and set a career-high with 10 strikeouts, leading the New York Mets to a much-needed victory heading into Sunday’s rubber game at Citi Field.
Matz racked up four strikeouts over his first two innings of work and, besides throwing 41 pitches in two scoreless frames, appeared to be in full control of his arsenal.
He issued a walk to Tony Wolters to lead off the third and allowed him to score on Charlie Blackmon‘s one-out single to cut the Mets’ lead to 2-1.
Trevor Story and Nolan Arenado added a couple of base hits to tie the game at two later in the frame, but Matz retired Daniel Murphy to leave Arenado and David Dahl on base.
The Mets took a 3-2 lead on Todd Frazier‘s RBI single in the bottom of the third, but Colorado tied it up again in the fourth when Wolters singled home Brendan Rogers.
With the bases loaded after Matz hit Blackmon with a pitch, the Long Island southpaw got Story to pop out to Pete Alonso at first base and escaped yet another jam.
Matz cruised through the fifth, setting down Arenado and Murphy on strikes — both on absolutely gorgeous curveballs, which the left-hander had working for him all evening — then dropped two more Uncle Charlies on Rodgers and Blackmon in the bottom of the sixth to close out his evening in style.
Steven Matz picked up 15 swinging strikes on Saturday evening, ten of them coming on his curve (five called strikes), two on his changeup and three on his incredibly effective sinker, which rang up 11 called strikes and resulted in just four balls in play over 56 pitches.
Eight of his 10 punchouts came via his curve and Matz tied another career-high with 120 total pitches thrown, matching his previous high-water mark set in August 2016.
Through 12 starts this season (62.2 innings), Steven Matz owns a 3.88 ERA with 66 strikeouts (9.48 per nine), 20 walks (2.87 per nine), and appears to be in line to duplicate — if not best — the solid 2018 he put together (3.97 ERA, 8.88 K/9, 3.39 BB/9 over 30 starts).
After the game, Matz spoke with the Mets’ media corps (video via @Mets) about buckling down and getting through the sixth inning, which gave Mets skipper Mickey Callaway the chance to use right-hander Seth Lugo for two clean frames before going t0 Edwin Diaz for the save.
“[Getting through the sixth was] huge. Especially with the pitch count up and the top of the lineup coming up again. It’s nice when [the coaching staff has] trust in you like that, it definitely gives you confidence.”
Mets pitching coach Dave Eiland made a mound visit with two on and two outs in the sixth and, as per Matz, Eiland left the decision to stick with Matz in his hands.
“He asked me if I wanted [Blackmon]. He’s like, ‘I have the power to take you out right now’ because Mickey [had been ejected],” Matz said. “He just reassured me. He asked if I wanted him. I told him yes. He said, ‘go get ’em, then'”.
Early on, folks wondered aloud whether Matz could handle the mental aspect of being a major-league hurler. All that considered, it’s pretty awesome to see Steven Matz develop into the confident, cerebral pitcher he’s become. Onward and upward.
