Coming off a miserable 67-pitch outing on Saturday that saw five runs come across on a homer, six hits, and two walks, Jason Vargas answered the bell in a series finale the New York Mets seemed destined but ultimately could not afford to lose.
Working five scoreless innings on 65 pitches (44 strikes), the lefty notched his second win of the year while lowering his earned run average to 8.53 – the lowest it’s been all season – in a 4-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Of course, the closing act in a trying road trip came with its share of hangups, both with respect to Vargas’ performance and manager Mickey Callaway’s decision to pull the plug so early on. Considering the Mets’ bullpen rolled into last night’s contest on perhaps the cheapest fumes imaginable, a five-inning effort never seemed an even remotely ideal plan.
The Mets, as they should have, intended to milk as much out of Vargas as possible before handing things off to the unlikely corps of stopgap relievers, and, in a way, that’s exactly what happened. While some may have speculated the quick hook was meant to protect Vargas from a third turn in the Atlanta batting order, Callaway made a different yet equally reasonable case, saying the following:
“He was done. He had a tough schedule in between, coming back on three days rest. He threw a bullpen at 2 o’clock in the morning or something in Game 2 of the doubleheader. So, we talked to him, kinda gave him the option and he just looked tired… [it] didn’t make sense for us to send him back out.”
Tim Peterson tossed his first two career innings in relief, while Jeurys Familia and Robert Gsellman handled the eighth and ninth innings on just 9 and 13 pitches, respectively. From a workload perspective, Vargas’ five innings were evidently sufficient. His two hits allowed matched the season-low from a May 21 victory over the Miami Marlins. Although he struck out five fewer hitters, Vargas still only walked one batter, and threw 68% of his pitches for strikes, an improvement over his last win by 9%.
Vargas also pitched this well against a team that had a major league best 130 wRC+ against left-handed pitching coming into the game and are the second highest scoring team in the National League. For a routinely ineffective pitcher faced with physical fatigue, Vargas demonstrated exceptional control of his changeup and breaking pitches, making quick work of some intimidating bats to keep the Mets’ pitching staff above water as it floats back home for a series against the Chicago Cubs.
Callaway was sure to sing the lefty’s praises some more: “He’s making his pitches. He was executing, his command was there. He didn’t give in… it was kinda like his outing two outings ago where [when] he had to make a big pitch, he made a big pitch and got some soft contact.”
Although it seemed easy to write Vargas off as (at best) a stowaway long-reliever three weeks ago, the dire health and depth concerns surrounding the rotation have blown a door wide open for him to earn his stripes and, even if after merely the fifth inning, leave his team in a winning position. Last night was no walk in the park, but simply focusing on making the pitches may be all the team needs out of Vargas in the short-run as it tries to climb back into contention.
