Hey, let’s give the Mets some rare credit where it’s due:
They have single-handedly proven that starting pitching is overrated.
Jacob deGrom competed on a night when he didn’t have his best stuff, and all the Mets rookie had to show for it was another loss. The Mets’ winning streak died at a lonely one as they fell to the Brewers, 3-1, Wednesday at Citi Field.
“My job is to keep us in the games,” a smiling deGrom said in a quiet Mets clubhouse, matching the quiet announced crowd of 20,170 that probably wasn’t even half of that. “Like I’ve said before, that’s what I go out there and try to do. I feel like the wins will take care of themselves. I feel like it’ll happen very soon.”
DeGrom (0-3), who has won over the hearts of the few remaining Mets fans, came within an out of tallying his fifth quality start in six tries and not anywhere as close to tallying his first career victory, as he lasted 5 2/3 innings, throwing 107 pitches, and gave up three runs and nine hits while walking one and striking out four. His ERA now stands at 3.44, underlining his poor support.
The Mets’ lineup recorded just the one run, five hits and a walk off Brewers starter Wily Peralta and four Milwaukee relievers — they hit several balls hard, but right at Brewers defenders.
The home team reached scoring position three times. Curtis Granderson put the Mets up, 1-0, when he tagged from third and scored on Lucas Duda’s second-inning sacrifice fly to center field then got stranded at third in the fourth inning when Duda flied out to center again. In the eighth, Andrew Brown stood at second base as Daniel Murphy flied out to center field. You couldn’t blame manager Terry Collins, having seen this movie before, for getting himself ejected by home-plate umpire Gary Cederstrom after the replay umpires seemingly goofed by not overturning a Taylor Teagarden groundout in the seventh.
It’s all par for the Mets’ course — not only for this season, but also for the two years preceding 2014.
With 41 quality starts (a minimum of six innings pitched and maximum of three runs allowed) in 65 games, the Mets rank fourth in the National League with a 63.7 percent quality-start rate. The Reds jumped ahead of them Wednesday with their 41st start in 64 games, putting them at 64.1 percent. Nevertheless, the Mets’ record now stands at a woeful 29-36.
Last year, the Mets tied Cincinnati for the second-highest quality-start ratio, 58 percent, in the NL. That got them a 74-88 mark, tying the Brewers for the 10th-best (and fifth-worst) record in the NL. And in 2012, the Mets led the NL with a 62-percent quality-start rate, which left them at … 74-88 (sound familiar?), 12th-best and fifth-worst.
What we’ve seen, therefore, is a three-year trend of close losses. Of the team’s starting rotation largely performing competently, only to be let down by subpar offense and terrible relief pitching.
In the long term, the goal remains improving the other units. The young trio of Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia and Vic Black provides some late-game hope, while the Mets’ 259 runs tie them with Pittsburgh for eighth in the NL, which would be their best such placement since they scored the sixth-highest total (718) in 2011.
In the short term, the goal is to ensure the starting pitchers don’t get demoralized by their efforts not producing wins.
“I’m sure he wants to win,” Collins said of deGrom. “He’s a big leaguer. … But he knows that it doesn’t come easy. We’ve got to get him some runs to work with. He’s had to pitch in close games almost every time he’s been out.
“But he’s a big boy. He knows that you’ve got to go out and continue to work. Continue to pitch well. And one of these days, we’re going to get that big hit for him, and he’s going to get that win.”
It sounds like a winning strategy. How many times have we heard and read general managers and managers discuss the importance of starting pitching?
The Mets have managed to expose the flaws in this theory like no other team: Quality starting pitching can keep you in the game. By itself, though? It can’t win you the game. Likewise, it can’t salvage a season that continues to veer in the wrong direction.