The New York Mets needed Jason Vargas to go deep — or at least deeper than five innings — on Sunday versus the Milwaukee Brewers.

Despite not going all that deep into games as of late, the southpaw owned a 1.93 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, and a .180 batting average against over his last three starts (14 innings) heading into their series-closing matinee.

After Saturday night’s 18-inning loss, Mets skipper Mickey Callaway alluded to his fifth-starter needing to be “leaned on” for “up to 105 pitches” on Sunday, as per Matt Ehalt of Yahoo Sports.

Without the safety net of the Mets’ first-class lineup — or maybe even business class with Michael Conforto, Jeff McNeil, Robinson Cano, and Wilson Ramos all out of the lineup — the Mets needed Vargas to perform adequately. And that, he did.

Things began well for the 36-year-old left-hander, striking out Lorenzo Cain swinging at a changeup to start the game, then retired Christian Yelich — making his return to the starting lineup on Sunday — and Ryan Braun in an 11-pitch first frame.

The left-hander pitched another clean inning in the second and racked up two more punchouts (Jesus Aguilar and Hernan Perez). Vargas needed just 20 pitches to navigate his first two innings and notched five swings and misses — all on his changeup — over the first six batters he faced. Impressive stuff.

He allowed back-to-back doubles to Manny Pina and Orlando Arcia to start the third, and almost worked his way out of trouble, but was touched up for three runs.

Vargas struck out his right-handed counterpart Zach Davies for the inning’s first out, then seemingly got Cain to line out to right field, but Keon Broxton misplayed the ball, allowing Pina to score and leaving runners at second and third for Yelich.

After getting ahead on the reigning National League MVP 0-and-2 and wasting a two-seamer away, Vargas attacked Yelich with a nasty changeup directly over the inside-black that Yelich sent into the third-deck of Miller Park.

Christian Yelich’s 15th home run of the year was mammoth, no doubt. But he had to put a virtually perfect swing on Vargas’ offering to get those results. And he did, in spades.

On an encouraging note, that homer was the first of Vargas’ 15 changeups that a Brewers hitter had put into play, and had racked up eight whiffs and a called strike on his changeup up until that point.

Vargas retired the Brewers in order in the bottom of the fourth, setting down Aguilar and Perez before notching his fifth strikeout of the afternoon — all swinging strikes on that elusive changeup — and, unbeknownst to us at the time, ending his afternoon.

In the bottom of the fifth with the Mets having cut Milwaukee’s lead to 3-1 on Tomas Nido‘s RBI double, Mets skipper Mickey Callaway sent Michael Conforto to the plate to hit for Vargas.

At just 50 pitches on the afternoon and with plenty of time for the Mets to erase their deficit, removing Vargas was a head-scratcher.

A short time later, the other shoe dropped and the Mets updated their press corps on the reason for Vargas’ removal, diagnosed as “mild hamstring tightness”.

After the Mets’ 3-2 loss to Milwaukee, closing out a three-game sweep for the Brew Crew, Mickey Callaway spoke to the media regarding Vargas’ day, as well as his exit, via SNY’s post-game broadcast.

“[Vargas] was pitching great then he tweaked his left hamstring on that last pitch to [Travis Shaw] that he struck him out on. We’ll evaluate him tomorrow,” Callaway said. “He was throwing the ball great. He had a lot of pitches left. [It’s] just unfortunate that he was throwing the ball well and just couldn’t get through it.”

Vargas shared his initial feelings on the injury in a video posted by Matt Ehalt of Yahoo Sports.

“After the last pitch that I threw to Shaw when my left leg swung around and hit the ground — I don’t know if it was an unusual fall, it didn’t feel unusual — my hamstring grabbed me […],” Vargas said. “We came in the locker room right away and tried to get things assessed as quickly as possible. As soon as we tried to recreate [a pitching motion] it set it off again.”

That doesn’t sound great, but we shall see.

All in all — injury aside — Sunday’s outing was another solid showing for Jason Vargas. He allowed three earned runs over four innings with five strikeouts and no bases-on-balls.

Vargas’ changeup was working beautifully, resulting in just three balls in play (one hit; Yelich’s homer) with those aforementioned eight swings and misses.

Over his last four starts, he’s got a 3.00 ERA with 1.11 WHIP, 17 strikeouts, and eight walks. That’s clear progress since posting a 14.21 ERA over his first three starts of the season.

In this capacity as the team’s fifth starter — especially considering how well the Mets’ starting rotation has pitched as of late (2.30 ERA, 3.22 FIP, 8.04 strikeouts and 2.11 walks per nine over their last seven games; 47 innings) — having Jason Vargas holding up the rear of this group in this fashion is a boon for this ballclub.

Hopefully, his hammy heals in short order and he continues to hold this pace.