Sure. “Battle” is the ultimate Mickey Callaway buzzword. But it’s hard to argue against the fact that Jason Vargas, despite struggling to find a feel for his pitches on several occasions, stayed in the driver’s seat for a fourth consecutive start. In the Mets’ 10-3 win yesterday over the Chicago Cubs, Vargas only pushed five and a third innings on 95 pitches – just 55 of which were strikes. Even so, the lefty allowed just one earned run on four hits and two walks while striking out six as he lowered his season ERA to 6.56.

In his last four starts, Vargas has gone 3-0 while posting a 2.03 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, and allowing just two home runs. Longevity (or lack thereof) remains an issue for the veteran, as the body of work has only spanned 22.2 innings. In his last three appearances – each of which has come on a routine of four days’ – Vargas has held hitters to a .213/.254/.311 slash line, and the end results weren’t all that different today.

A Willson Contreras leadoff double and an Ian Happ RBI infield hit in the second inning were the only real stains for Vargas, who at times seemed to be pitching against both the Cubs’ offense and Stu Scheurwater’s inconsistent strike zone. Perhaps the most egregious miss came with two outs in the third inning, after Vargas perfectly spotted a 3-2 fastball to Anthony Rizzo at the knees, but was robbed of a strikeout as Rizzo was awarded first base. Both he and Kevin Plawecki took exception, with the lefty going so far as to yell at Scheurwater before being restrained by Jay Bruce.

Even then, however, Vargas was able to work around the adversity, as he retired David Bote on a 5-4 forceout to end the inning just one pitch later. Such had also been the case in the first inning, after he rose above a pair of two-out hits to strike out Bote with a fastball along the outside corner. Vargas also notched a punchout of Kyle Schwarber to open his afternoon and again to end the second, alternating seamlessly between his fastball and changeup while also making great use of a much more efficient curveball in the latter portion of the game.

“Pitching well is better than pitching bad,” Vargas astutely revealed to reporters following his fifth win of the season. “It’s definitely nice going into your week of work knowing there’s things you have to build on and there’s a rhythm you’ve been able to establish.”

The rhythm itself certainly could have been more consistent given the tight spots he had to navigate yesterday. Of the 22 batters Vargas faced, nine worked their way into full counts, including two such at-bats from opposing pitcher Alec Mills (who entered the day with just one career plate appearance). Finishing hitters continues to be a grey area for  Vargas, but his ability to stay out of trouble altogether also deserves recognition.

His fifth and final full inning on the mound best reflected his overall performance. Vargas began by racing ahead of Happ 0-2, missing his way into a full count, and then regaining his composure in time to paint a good two-seamer on the outside corner and pull off the strikeout. He then lost Schwarber on a 3-2 fastball that just missed the edge, but again appeared to be back in control after working ahead of Albert Almora 0-2. Vargas hit another snag, however, drilling him with a curveball in the dirt to bring Ben Zobrist to the plate as the tying run. After baiting him into a 2-2 count with a good fastball away, Vargas dropped a changeup on the outer half to induce a 6-4-3 double play and end a 19-pitch, nine-strike inning.

“It’s refreshing to know we’re going to have a guy we can count on moving forward,” Callaway said after the game. “We all knew we had this in him, and this is what you get when you have a veteran guy that gets on a routine every day.”

He still has plenty of work cut out for him, but Vargas finally seems to have found a niche of sorts over his past four starts, at the very least keeping the ball in the park and executing the most important pitches. It would be far more encouraging to see the lefty crack seven innings at some point, or at the very least find a way to better attack hitters. But in his defense, the final lines have been a breath of fresh air given his struggles through the greater part of the 2018 season.