NEW YORK -- Try getting a hit the first time through the batting order against Nolan McLean. Just try it. If you’re anything like the first 45 big leaguers to attempt that feat this season, you will probably fail.
For the second time this year, McLean took a perfect game into the sixth inning of Tuesday's eventual 5-3 loss to the Twins. That bid didn’t last; Matt Wallner led off the sixth at Citi Field with a clean single and Byron Buxton followed with a two-run homer, sticking McLean with a no-decision in a game that he dominated early. But the rookie’s early dominance was still something to behold.
McLean began Tuesday’s outing by striking out seven of the first nine batters he faced. He finished with a season-high 10 strikeouts, though McLean did become more hittable as the game went along. An inning after Buxton’s homer, Kody Clemens hit a one-out double and Luke Keaschall followed with a game-tying hit.
"I think going back through our lineup for that third time, everybody was communicating in there,” Buxton said. “We're talking, trying to figure things out. Once [Wallner] got that hit, it really lifted that monkey off the back. Once that happened, it kind of lightened us up a little bit and we stopped worrying about trying to get a hit and started worrying about putting runs on the board and seeing what we could do.”
In the first five innings of games this season, opponents are batting 6-for-80 (.075) against McLean, including a 3-for-42 (.071) stat line the first time through the batting order. In innings six and beyond, opponents are 9-for-25 (.360). Still, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza noted that even a slightly harried McLean was his best option in the seventh.
McLean, for his part, bemoaned pitch selection more than any sort of late-inning fatigue.
“These guys are getting paid to play baseball for a living, too,” McLean said. “So at the end of the day, you’ve got to just execute pitches a little bit better and maybe do a little bit more homework, how guys are adjusting to me. But I’ve got to execute better.”
Earlier this season, in an April 3 start in San Francisco, McLean also retired the first 15 batters he faced before allowing a pair of walks and a hit in the sixth.
His season ERA is 2.67.