In a hitter’s park against a surging Arizona lineup that has ranked fourth, third, and second in the majors in home runs, weighted runs created, and OPS (respectively) over the last two weeks, Jason Vargas was again thrown into the fire. While he was in fact tagged with the loss, Vargas certainly put up a fight that – as the case has been with nearly every starting pitcher the past two and a half weeks – simply went unnoticed and unrewarded.

After struggling to escape the fifth inning in four of his first five starts in New York, Vargas has now accomplished such a task in three consecutive starts. In these three games, the lefty is 1-2 with a 3.00 ERA, 1.067 WHIP, and 2.75 K/BB ratio (11:4, specifically).

Ideally, of course, Vargas would even push the envelope a tad further and at least put up a quality start. However, his work last night against the Diamondbacks could be considered his highest-quality start of the year given the circumstances.

Vargas’ final line featured five strikeouts, and three earned runs on five hits and two walks on just 74 total pitches. Obviously, between the bullpen session he had thrown on Sunday that had put his stamina in question and the tight leash he has been typically held to through each of his starts, Vargas was not a particularly solid bet to enter the sixth against the meat of Arizona’s batting order and come out alive.

The 3-4-5 hitters featured first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and left fielder David Peralta, both of whom knocked Vargas for runs on a solo homer apiece. But at a relatively low pitch count and freshly-removed from an effective last two frames of work, Vargas could have had a little more in the tank. This is not to bemoan Mickey Callaway’s techniques, but rather to accentuate just how impressive Vargas was this time around.

A particularly frustrating element of past failures among Mets starters has been the advent of the long inning. Speaking both canonically and from experience, even a scoreless inning that calls for over 30 pitches can have deadly implications as a start wears on. Vargas’ inning-by-inning pitch count ranged between nine and 20 tosses across his five innings last night, and despite missing with a handful of fastballs in the second inning, he was still able to work out of ghastly trouble, erasing a two-on, none-out predicament with a flyout to right from Jake Lamb, timely strikeout of Chris Owings, and weak flyout from the pitcher Matt Koch to keep the game tied at one.

This narrative repeated itself in the final three innings, albeit to different tunes. In the third frame, some unfortunate calls from home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman were cast by the wayside as Vargas was able to promptly weave a 6-4-3 double play out of a leadoff single and subsequent hitter’s count to Nick Ahmed.

Of course, Goldschmidt and Peralta’s blasts in the third and fourth innings hinted at a looming barrage of runs. Nonetheless, Vargas buckled down and made adjustments. After falling behind 2-0 on Ketel Marte, Vargas turned his attention towards the changeup, using it three times on four pitches to whiff Marte, spotting it nicely to induce an awkward flyout from Lamb, and throwing it twice to Owings as he retired the center fielder on a lineout to left.

While some poorly-located fastballs had bitten Vargas earlier, he managed to cap off his night by inducing another double play grounder. It should also be noted that Vargas was able to pick off Ahmed in the first inning to retire the side.

Needless to say, a lot of what Vargas himself could control seemed to go his way, especially as the night dragged along further. The results through the year haven’t exactly equated what he was signed to produce, and definitely pail in comparison to those of Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler (4.31 combined ERA against a 7.39 Vargas ERA in 2018), but the writing has started to reveal itself on the wall that Vargas, even if for just five starts, just may be a bit more trustworthy.