Analysis before the trade deadline: We got Paul Blackburn? Who the bleep is…oh wait, the name is slightly familiar. Right, Paul Blackburn was an All-Star a couple of years ago. I remember that because when I saw he was representing the A’s in 2022, I thought, “who the bleep is…?”
As Friday night’s game got going: This 2022 All-Star Paul Blackburn seems to be courting trouble. The Angels have a run, and they have baserunners, and how is having Paul Blackburn helpful to the Mets’ pursuit of a playoff spot? Why didn’t we just go out and get John Thomson — my default trade deadline hurt-more-than-he-helped deadline acquisition example — again?
As Friday night’s game went on: He needs a little help from his defense, and maybe the Angels aren’t much, but Blackburn’s still out there, still getting out of innings, not giving up any more runs. Given the options (Tylor Megill, mostly), we certainly could have done worse.
Conclusion regarding the newest Mets starting pitcher: Six innings! Eighty-two efficient pitches! Gave up only the one run! Was given a lead in the third, saw it expanded in the sixth, and never gave up any of it! The Mets go on to win, 5-1, therefore Paul Blackburn knows how to win!
Make them all this easy, and this trip will be a breeze.
This one’s easy (with apologies to Paul McCartney)
Blackburn slinging in the West coast night
Clipped the Angels wings and got them out
All our lives. We were only waiting for this moment to arise.
When he gave up the single and then walked the second batter after having him at 0-2 I was thinking, “This isn’t going to go well.” Nice to be wrong.
And maybe Alvarez is the missing ingredient to pitch sequencing for him. Stranger things have happened.
Blackburn’s adjustment reminds me of Maton’s adjustment. The league caught up to Reed Garrett’s change in pitch mix. If the difference between Blackburn’s last start as an Athletic versus the Angels and his first start as a Met versus the Angels a week later was just Alvarez revising his pitch mix, let’s hope it takes the league longer than Blackburn’s next, say, 10 starts to catch on.
He exceeded my expectation, which was set at Megill. On one hand, it’s the Angels. On the other hand, the Angels hit Blackburn in his last start last Friday.
The RISP LOB virus is back: 3-18 RISP was not good. On the other hand, by manufacturing that many chances to score, the ‘3’ was enough.
Butto and Maton with 3 stress-free innings in relief. Reinforcing the bullpen was Stearns’s main focus. Let’s see how the relievers on call tonight do. Severino’s last start, and Peterson’s too, is a warning that the bullpen may need to carry a bigger load in the stretch run. The Braves and Twins are a step up from the Angels, of course.
7 back of the Phillies, too.
Seven games behind the Phillies. In 2007 the Phillies were 7 behind the first-place Mets with 17 games to go and won the division. How sweet would reversing the script be! But I’m not greedy; I’ll take a wild-card spot.
The 5-back Braves have 1st dibs on taking the division from the Phillies, but if the Braves do that, the Phillies would be a step away from being climbed over by the Mets, which would be a step away from being shoved out of the playoff picture altogether. The Phillies still have separation from the wildcard scrum, and I expect them to stabilize like the Yankees have. But they haven’t yet, and their cushion is now another bad week, combined with continued hotness by the wildcard contenders, from running out.
…and this trip will be a breeze.
Not if they keep going 3 for 18 with runners in scoring position, no matter how many Paul Blackburns they have up their sleeve.
This is key. There’s too much Mets’ failure in those situations to ease my fears of it eventually catching up with them.
If the Mets offense is regressing to its May version, then the upgraded bullpen needs to be ready and able to protect small leads nightly. I don’t expect the starters, Blackburn included, to become better or worse in terms of the chronically short outings while mostly limiting the damage. It bears watching if Severino, who hasn’t carried a normal starting load of innings pitched since 2018, is wearing out. Other Mets starters are stretching beyond their 2023 innings pitched too. The bullpen needs to turn into a strength.
Well, that was an upsetting throwback May loss. Decent starting pitching, RISP LOBs (1-7, only Martinez’s grand slam), and reliever meltdown. Brazoban was supposed to have the fewest question marks of the bullpen additions, too.
This one hurt.
Brazoban looked great against the Twins.
Relief pitching, like life, “can turn on a dime.” 11/22/1963 Steven King.
[…] runs can win you a game if your pitching doesn’t allow quite that many in return runs in return. Met pitching wasn’t quite that effective. Jose Quintana gutted out five frames of […]