When Mets manager carlos mendoza called for Tylor Megill to start the seventh inning Wednesday night, he made it clear why he would have no choice but to send Kodai Senga We are ready to start this series again.
The Mets pitching is almost exhausted. Veteran starters Sean Manea and luis severinowell above their innings totals from last season, they are not recovering as quickly between starts as they did for much of the year, according to people familiar with the situation. Jose Quintana He says his arm feels fine, but the staff is watching him very closely.
That doesn’t mean those players are injured; they are not. It is common to be more tired in October. But as we saw when Manaea hit what he described as a “wall” in the fifth inning of Game 2, this impacts the length and, by extension, the quality of the performance.
reliever Jose Buttoa key arm of great influence for the team, has left the circle of trust and the veteran Phil Thug He has allowed runs in two of his four October appearances and hasn’t always been available.
The fact that Mendoza can no longer push his starters as deep into games as he did during the pennant race and early in the postseason means he needs Megill to cover the innings. On Wednesday, Severino gutted 4.2 innings but he struggled with fastball control (often an indicator of fatigue) and left 13 outs on the table for the bullpen.
Although Butto is right-handed, his changeup is a weapon against lefties. Because Mendoza can’t reasonably call up Butto for a big at-bat against players like Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freemanneeds to save Peterson for those situations.
Mendoza went to Megill in the seventh to save the rest of that corral, a reasonable decision that left Megill out of consideration for the start of Game 5.
All of the above adds up to why the Mets probably “don’t have a choice,” as one source put it, to start Senga in game 5. Senga suffered from a lack of control during his Division Series start in Philadelphia, and the Phillies helped him. He suffered a serious setback in the first game of the National League Championship Series in Los Angeles. throw only 10 of 30 pitches for strikes.
Both Senga and the Mets front office insist that he is healthy and needs to work on his mechanics.
Perhaps if the Mets don’t need to use Peterson in Game 4, they could consider starting him the next day. But they may not be able to afford to lose him to the bullpen for Game 6 and possibly Game 7.
Still, let’s say they face elimination in Game 5. Could they really trust the current version of Senga with his season on the line?
That’s a decision the Mets can only avoid if they win on Thursday.
