It’s tough to manage a bullpen. It’s even tougher when your bullpen, you know, stinks. It seems like one way to combat that would be to avoid going to your pen if humanly possible. However, that’s not the way that Buck Showalter manages.
Jose Butto was really good thru six innings but ran into some trouble in the seventh. Showalter pulled him with one out and runners on the corners to bring in Trevor Gott. The reliever allowed both inherited runners to score, making it a 2-2 game.
Phil Bickford pitched the ninth inning and issued a four-pitch walk to the leadoff hitter and then hit the next batter on an 0-2 count. After a sac bunt, the Nationals scored the winning run on a soft bouncer up the middle to defeat the Mets, 3-2, Wednesday night in Washington.
Butto was called up to take Carlos Carrasco’s spot and turned in his best outing in his brief MLB career. Known in the minors for his changeup, Butto consistently hit 96-96 with his fastball and showed a good slider, too. And the key to his success in this game was that he only walked one. Yeah, it was only the Nats but it was still an encouraging outing.
The Mets jumped out to the early lead, as Brandon Nimmo led off the game with a double and came home on an RBI single by Francisco Lindor. They pushed their lead to two runs in the fifth thanks to an RBI single by Mark Vientos.
There were more chances that the team didn’t cash in on, as the Mets were just 2-12 with RISP.
Lindor and Ronny Mauricio had two-hit games to lead the Mets’ attack. Mauricio has three multi-hit games in his first five MLB contests. He had the hardest-hit ball of the night, with his single in the second inning coming with a 111.5 exit velocity.
Great outing by Butto. Too many missed opportunities to score. It was a game we should have won and the last against an opponent not fighting to get into the playoffs. How much fun would it be to watch us finally make a difference as a spoiler? Mauricio’s bat has been fun to watch. On to the Twins.
Gut Reaction: it was surprising that Butto, with his 5.93 minor league ERA, pitched so well. He deserves another start. Isn’t a tier one reliever, in fact, he isn’t considered remotely that since 2015. The met bullpen is Smith, Raley and Ottavino and that’s it.