They call this a deGrom in Queens.
Unrewarded brilliance.
Nolan McLean was terrific as the Mets offense hibernated. He threw up zeroes for six innings. Then, the bullpen blew it and the lineup did nothing to get him off the hook.
The Mets suffered a series-losing, 7-1 setback to the Diamondbacks, and McLean took the loss despite a strong outing at frigid Citi Field.
“That’s part of baseball, at the end of the day. I’m sure I’ll leave guys out there and our bullpen is going to strand them for me plenty of times this year,” McLean said. “It’s already been done a couple of times. It’s part of the game. It’s a long season. I know those guys have my back.”
McLean departed with two runners on, one out in the seventh and a 1-0 lead. Luke Weaver entered, and two batters later the Mets were behind. Converted right fielder Brett Baty couldn’t get to a Gabriel Morena drive that hit the right field fence. Mark Vientos then threw wide to the plate on an Alek Thomas grounder. Arizona led and continued to add on, scoring seven times in the seventh and eighth.
“He deserves to work out of that with his head held high and rely on us to get the job done in crunch time,” Weaver said. “He deserves the win there. I hate to be that guy for him, but I’ll pick him up at some point, and he’ll continue to do a great job for us.”
Despite the ugly ending, it was another quality outing from McLean.
The right-hander struck out eight, walked two and allowed three hits over 6 ¹/₃ innings. He threw 100 pitches, 64 for strikes, and his ERA on the young season now stands at 2.70.
He allowed just one hit over the first five innings. But McLean walked Geraldo Perdomo leading off the seventh, and with one out Jose Fernando singled softly to center. That was all for McLean.
McLean has made 11 career big league starts and has allowed more than two earned runs just once. The only Mets pitcher to accomplish that feat was Jim McAndrew.
“He had everything working, especially the sinker,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “The sinker has been a pitch that’s been kind of off the first couple of outings. But today, the movement, the way he was just commanding that pitch, and he had pretty much everything else working. He was pretty solid.”
It is reminiscent of Jacob deGrom’s start to his career with the Mets. So was Thursday’s outing: no support from his lineup or bullpen.
