Phew! The Mets bullpen passed the baton from Alex Young to Dedniel Núñez to Phil Maton to Jake Diekman to survive a 3-2 thriller before 47,453 stunned onlookers Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. This was a long way from the plan on Opening Day.
It was Young’s first appearance for the Mets and his first outing since June 1. Núñez has been excellent (2.43 ERA, 0.93 WHIP in 33 1/3 innings), but he is a 28-year-old rookie who started the season an afterthought and pitched three innings in April. Maton had a 6.97 ERA for Tampa Bay in June before coming to New York. Diekman’s ERA is 5.10 and 9.64 in July.
The quartet tossed 3 2/3 hitless and scoreless innings, three walks and three strikeouts, highlighted by Diekman’s fanning of Aaron Judge with a runner on first with one out in the ninth.
Photo by Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
“When the ninth inning started, I was gonna just let it play out and see how we were gonna get to Judge,” manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters post-game. “Obviously, it was a runner on first and I decided to pitch to him and again, huge job by Diekman. Feel for the game there, see how Diekman was throwing the ball … runner on second base, probably a different story. But we roll the dice there and it worked out today.”
Mendoza also talked about his seventh-inning call to stick with Núñez after intentionally walking Judge to put two men on base.
“So I went out there to talk to them about the situation,” he said. “Not only we gonna walk Judge, but they gonna pinch-hit the lefty (Ben Rice). Kinda talked to (pitching coach Jeremy) Hefner before I went out there, put together a game plan on how we gonna attack him. It worked obviously. Trusted Núñez there in that huge spot.”
Núñez got the final two outs of the inning. Still, it may be wise to add reinforcements to this group for the rest of the way in a playoff race. In 100 games, Mets relievers have a 4.12 ERA (18th in MLB) covering 358 1/3 innings (16th).
Some arms that may be available with the trade deadline six days away include lefty Tanner Scott of Miami (1.24 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 50 Ks, 43 2/3 innings, 17 saves), righty Michael Kopech of the White Sox (4.85 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 57 Ks, 42 2/3 innings, nine saves) and lefty Andrew Chafin of Detroit (3.48 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 44 strikeouts, 33 2/3 innings).
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