With just four days left until the all-star break, the New York Mets continue to climb up the National League ranks. They have recorded a series win against the Nationals to get a game over .500 and are currently a half-game back from the San Diego Padres for the final wild card spot. In Wednesday night’s 6-2 victory, Jose Iglesias came up big with a two-run single to give the Mets the lead in the bottom half of the sixth, but the bullpen kept the Nationals off the board.
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Three different relievers were called upon after a dominant outing from Luis Severino, but the biggest story was from the efforts of José Buttó. After Danny Young retired the first two batters in the eighth, Luis García Jr. roped a double to center field, and the Mets manager called upon Buttó to record a four-out save.
“I’ve been saying it, they’re eventually gonna get it done. They’re going through a rough stretch here, but at some point, I’m pretty confident they’re going to get the job done. Tonight was a perfect example of that… And Buttó. First career save – I like how he came in and attacked the zone, used the two-seam against righties and the change-up to get Vargas,” Mendoza said.
Before Buttó made the switch to the bullpen, he made a great case to be part of the rotation moving forward, but with Tylor Megill returning from injury, the decision was made to send him back to Syracuse. Over his first seven starts, his command was off, giving up 21 free passes, but he recorded a strong 3.08 ERA while striking out 38 over 38 innings.
In desperate need of fresh arms in the bullpen, the Mets decided to bring Buttó back to the major leagues and give him another look when he came out of the pen. That decision has been successful, as Buttó has yet to allow a run over his first three appearances and has only allowed one hit with three strikeouts to pair with it. It seemed that he was potentially going to be another option for long relief outings due to the starting rotation prematurely exiting games, but the rotation has held its own, and Buttó was able to execute his first career save in Wednesday night’s game.
With the trade deadline less than 20 days away, the Mets have been able to make in-house moves to the bullpen to keep arms fresh. That said, David Sterns will still be resourceful in his search to improve the bullpen heading into the second half of the season. With Buttó locking down the save on Wednesday night, this opens up an opportunity for Phil Maton to make his Mets debut and Edwin Díaz will be rested as the Mets go for the sweep against the Washington Nationals on Thursday afternoon.
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