Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

Facing the Marlins for the second time in six days, Tylor Megill followed up his solid effort in Miami with a strong start in the Mets’ 2023 home opener. The big righty tossed six shutout innings, allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out three.

Megill only had one 1-2-3 inning, but only allowed the Marlins to get a base runner to second base once – on Luis Arraez‘s one-out double in the third. The right-hander side-stepped a two-out single in the first, and a two-out walk in the second.

In the fourth inning, Jean Segura drilled a 107.9 mile-per-hour line drive off Megill’s right ankle, which prompted a visit from Buck Showalter and the training staff. After walking it off and throwing some warm-up pitches, Megill stayed in and got Jesús Sánchez to pop out to end the inning.

“The ankle feels fine,” Megill said after the game. “I think it hit me in the best spot possible.”

When Megill came out for the fifth inning, his velocity was noticeably down a couple of notches as he walked Nick Fortes on four pitches to start the inning. However, he induced a 4-6-3 double play from Jon Berti before getting Arraez to ground out to end the frame.

Megill’s lone clean inning came in the sixth inning, though there was one hurdle he encountered. After flyouts from Jorge Soler and Garrett Cooper, Megill was issued a pitch-clock violation on a 2-2 count against Jazz Chisholm Jr.. Megill was unfazed though, as he struck out Chisholm on a curveball to finish his afternoon.

“He was key,” Buck Showalter said in his postgame interview. “He got a lot of counts in his favor, first time (this year) that he went six innings.”

Unlike his first start of the year, Megill leaned primarily on his fastball, using it for 57% of his pitches. He didn’t register many swings and misses though, generating just seven on 33 swings. Megill also averaged 93.9 MPH on his heater – which was slightly down from the 94.4 he averaged in his first start. His fastball topped out at 96.4 MPH.

“Last outing, I definitely didn’t have the fastball command but good off-speed command, but (Friday) it seemed like I had command of a lot of my stuff,” Megill said after the game.

With Friday’s outing, Megill moves to 6-0 lifetime in April, and he became just the second Mets pitcher along with Tom Seaver to throw at least six shutout innings and allow three or fewer hits in the team’s home opener, per Elias Sports Bureau.

“The boys came out to play, played hard, and came out with a win,” Megill said.

Megill is slated to make his next start when the Mets open up their 10-game road trip against the A’s in Oakland on Friday.