San Diego Padres starter Colin Rea took a no-hitter against the New York Mets into the seventh with two outs until Yoenis Cespedes hit a single opposite the defensive shift. The Mets hit two home runs in the ninth inning but fell short, losing 5-3.
Here are five takeaways from last night’s loss.
1. Mets Hitters Need to Get the Bat Off the Shoulder
Colin Rea isn’t a flame thrower blowing 96 mph fastballs past hitters. Rea doesn’t have a devastating sinker/two-seam fastball inducing groundball after groundball. So, why were Mets hitters taking so many four-seam and two-seam fastballs early in at-bats?
During Rea’s eight innings pitched, Mets hitters took a fastball for a called strike in 0-0 or 1-0 counts in fourteen of their twenty-eight at-bats against Rea. In other words, in 50% of the Mets at-bats against Rea, they had viable fastballs to swing at to produce a good opportunity for a hit but instead, the Mets hitters didn’t even attempt a swing!
So far this season, Rea does have an issue throwing strikes as his walks per nine rate is average of 3.57 is considered poor by FanGraphs MLB standards but MLB hitters have to be prepared to aggressively swing at fastballs early in an at-bat regardless of a pitchers past control issues.
2. Jacob deGrom (L, 3-1) 5.0 IP, 3 R, 8 H, 2 SO, 1 BB
Jacob deGrom’s outing is simple to breakdown. He produced a strong overall strike rate of 68% and a strong 27.8% whiff/miss rate with his slider. Unfortunately, a few of his pitches caught the middle third of home plate resulting in Wil Myers’ home run, Brett Wallace’s double, Derek Norris’ double and Rea’s RBI single.
Two positives from deGrom’s outing were:
- Although his pitches caught too much of the plate, he kept his pitches down in the strike zone (thigh-high and below)
- His fastball velocity was up from previous starts, averaging 94.2 mph while maxing at 96.4
3. Logan Verrett 2.0 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 3 SO, 0 BB
Logan Verrett didn’t pitch as poorly as his stat line may suggest. He made two mistakes on two-strike pitches, hanging a slider to Norris ending up in the left field bleachers and a hanging curveball to Jemile Weeks for a seeing eye single. All other pitches showed good command low in the strike zone.
In case you missed it, the second run scored on a bloop single to left field. Michael Conforto dove to catch the ball but instead deflected it twenty feet from himself. He rushed his throw into second base in an effort to throw out the batter runner causing a throwing error allowing the unearned run to score.
4. Ninth Inning Homers
Curtis Granderson hit a man-bomb to center. Yoenis Cespedes hit an absolute laser into the left field bleachers.
5. Kevin Plawecki Ground Out Every At-Bat
Catcher Kevin Plawecki looks over matched every time he steps into the batter’s box.
According to FanGraphs, Plawecki is 14th in MLB in groundball percentage at 62.1%, meaning 62.1% of all his contact made ends up on the ground (minimum 40 plate appearances).
Stat of the Night
Via SNY broadcast – the Mets pitching staff has allowed the third fewest base runners in MLB but have allowed the most stolen bases.
Follow Chris Zaccherio on Twitter @ziography for more Mets insight going beyond statistics.
