PITTSBURGH — Robert Stock had a day to remember last Sunday when in his return to a major league mound after thoracic outlet syndrome surgery he gave the Mets five effective innings against Miami.
But on Saturday he resembled the back of his baseball card: a 36-year-old journeyman who has largely scuffled following a solid rookie season as a reliever with the Padres in 2018.
Stock couldn’t throw enough strikes against the Pirates, and the ones that did land in the zone were peppered all over the ballpark. With Stock’s rough outing went the Mets’ four-game winning streak in a 9-0 loss at PNC Park.
“It’s one of those things where you look at the process and see what was going on that you can do better over time,” Stock said after surrendering eight runs on nine hits and five walks over three innings. “When I am getting guys 0-2, and even if I am giving up weak contact, you can’t give up weak contact if you strike them out.
“And then falling behind in the count later in the game is just inexcusable, because even if you are losing, the manager is looking at you to eat innings, and that was the worst part of tonight: When I got fatigued, I didn’t battle through it. I kind of gave into it. That’s on me.”
Such is life for a club that has struggled to fill a starting rotation this season. Rookie lefty Zac Thornton has mitigated some of that disappointment, but Kodai Senga’s banishment to the bullpen hasn’t helped.
And in the 30 hours leading into Monday’s trade deadline, the Mets traded an underperforming starter (Freddy Peralta) and pitcher on the cusp of returning from a rehab assignment (Clay Holmes) to the Rays and Cubs, respectively. Those trades — the latter of which also sent Tyrone Taylor to the Cubs — netted the Mets four minor league prospects.
It also doesn’t help that the organization’s top pitching prospect, Jonah Tong, has struggled at Triple-A Syracuse. Most recently the right-hander surrendered five home runs in a start.
So the Mets will have to decide whether to give Stock another chance or dig deeper into the farm system. Senga has shown improvement recently in a relief role and has expressed his desire to team officials to return to starting at some point. But it’s unclear if the Mets are willing to go that route with the erratic right-hander.
This Stock clunker followed Sunday’s start against the Marlins in which he allowed only one run over five innings.
“He has talent,” said Mets interim manager Andy Green, who managed Stock with the Padres. “He earned that right for a second start. We’ll make a determination where we go from here, but this most surely doesn’t define him.”
Stock got jumped in the first inning, when he allowed three runs on three hits, a walk and a hit batsman. Ronny Simon’s two-run double was the inning’s big hit after Jake Mangum and Bryan Reynolds singled in succession leading off. Stock loaded the bases by plunking Spencer Horwitz and allowed an RBI fielder’s choice to Nick Gonzales before Simon delivered.
Simon singled and stole second in the third, and Jacob Gonzalez’s RBI single buried Stock in a 4-0 hole.
The Pirates knocked out Stock in the fourth by scoring another four runs. Mangum’s RBI double extended the Mets’ deficit to 5-0 and Stock’s wild pitch brought in another run. Gonzalez’s two-run double ended Stock’s night.
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“Any time you’re playing in the major leagues it’s exactly where you want to be and seeing how good it is makes you want to work harder to keep staying there,” Stock said. “The older you get and the more times you do poorly the deeper the hole you dig yourself.”
Luis Torrens entered to pitch the seventh with the Mets behind 8-0 and allowed one earned run over two innings.
Offensively, the Mets showed little after blasting 10 homers combined in their previous four games. The lineup was without Carson Benge, who is sidelined with a bone bruise in his left wrist after sliding into the left field fence on Friday. Benge will be evaluated on a daily basis.
“As the game slipped away from us, we didn’t have a lot of quality at-bats after that,” Green said of a lineup that produced only three hits against Bubba Chandler and the Pirates bullpen.
