LONG TIME COMING: Shaun Marcum pitched eight scoreless innings last night to pick up his first victory of the season. (Getty Images)
CHICAGO — For a night, Jupiter, Mars and the Mets aligned, allowing Shaun Marcum to receive credit for an honest night’s work.
After nine straight losses to start the season, the veteran right-hander finally broke into the win column, firing eight shutout innings for the Mets in their 3-0 victory over the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.
Marcum deserved this one, pitching his best game of the season after consecutive clunkers had put his spot in the rotation in jeopardy. That was until Jon Niese hit the disabled list last week with a partially torn rotator cuff, leaving the Mets without a starting pitcher to spare.
“I wouldn’t call it breaking the ice, but more contributing,” Marcum said. “But it’s nice to be able to do that every now and again.”
Marcum (1-9) allowed four hits and two walks over 96 pitches. Anthony Young (0-13 in 1993) and Bob Miller (0-12 in 1962) are the only pitchers in franchise history to lose more consecutive games without a win to begin a season.
In the bullpen before the game, Marcum said he chose to abandon his changeup because it was “terrible.” He instead unveiled a split-fingered fastball — a pitch he had never used before in a game — and got the desired results.
“I’ve been toying with [the splitter] for a couple of years, but today the changeup was awful down in the bullpen,” Marcum said.
The Mets (31-43) did all their damage against John Danks in the fifth inning, scoring three runs — two of which were unearned — to win for the fourth time in six games.
Alexei Ramirez’s error was the pivotal play in a three-run fifth for the Mets. With runners on second and third, Juan Lagares hit a grounder that rolled under the shortstop Ramirez’s glove, allowing Josh Satin and Andrew Brown to score. Then, with two outs, Eric Young Jr. singled off third baseman Brent Morel’s glove to make it 3-0.
The sloppy play by the White Sox didn’t rub off on the Mets. In the fifth, Daniel Murphy made a barehand grab on Omar Quintanilla’s throw to second and fired to first, where Satin applied the tag on Gordon Beckham’s leg to complete a double play. The next batter, Tyler Flowers, hit a grounder deep into the shortstop hole that Quintanilla grabbed before making a strong throw to first, ending the inning.
“That helps, catching the ball behind [Marcum], because he’s not a big strikeout guy,” manager Terry Collins said. “If you play defense you will keep him in the game and tonight I thought he kept the ball down very well and for the most part pitched ahead in the count and made them swing the bats.”
Before the game, catcher John Buck admitted he was angry Collins pulled him for a pinch-hitter, Murphy, in the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s 5-4 loss. Buck last night had another game to forget, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.
“If you’re happy about getting pinch-hit for, then you’ve got a problem, in my opinion,” Buck said. “What you saw [Tuesday] had nothing to do with my personal average or anything at all. It was everything with the game.”
Buck is hitting .210 with 12 homers and 36 RBIs.
“It’s not easy when you take out a guy who you also know at any time can hit a home run,” Collins said. “But with the way things have been going, I can’t sit there with Dan Murphy waiting to hit and not getting him in the game.
“I hope John is mad and says, ‘I’ll show you,’ and he goes out and hits .450 for the next month. That will really make me happy. It will prove my point.”