NEW YORK -- When things fell apart for Christian Scott, they fell apart quickly.
For much of Friday’s 3-1 loss to the Astros at Citi Field, Scott was cruising. He allowed one hit and three total baserunners over the game’s first five innings, inducing nine ground-ball outs from the first 15 batters he faced.
Then, suddenly, Scott could no longer find the strike zone. A walk to Yordan Alvarez -- defensible enough. A walk to Isaac Paredes. Another to Jose Altuve. Just like that, the bases were loaded with one out in the fifth, and Scott was up to 96 pitches. He was left to watch from the dugout as Nate Lavender allowed all three inherited runners to score.
“It feels like, when the walks are coming,” Scott said, “they’re coming in bunches.”
Walks have been a bugaboo for Scott in his first season back from 2024 Tommy John surgery. Over his past two outings, Scott has walked nine batters. His 23 walks since the start of July rank fourth in the National League, five fewer than Andrew Abbott at the top of that leaderboard.
One of the only Major Leaguers with more walks over that stretch is Astros starter Hunter Brown, but the Mets mustered only one free pass off him on Friday. They also struck out 10 times against Brown, who pitched into the seventh. Only Carson Benge broke through against him with an RBI double in the fourth.
For both pitchers, walks have been an issue. For Scott, they’ve been costing him success in the second half of this season. Interim manager Andy Green pointed to the fact that command tends to be the last thing to return for pitchers following Tommy John surgery. Yet improvement hasn’t been linear for Scott, who sometimes features sharp control and other times does not.
Prior to surgery, Scott featured excellent control, averaging 2.3 walks per nine innings. He’s at 4.2 per nine this season.
“I think you see it often in guys in their first year back from TJ,” Green said. “I don’t want to put it all on that, because he’ll take ownership and expect himself to fill up the zone. I think that’s actually fairly common. Then you see someone in him who has never walked a lot of people, and we have the anticipation that, as he gets further and further from that … the walks will dissipate.”
Soto close, Williams not so much
Juan Soto went through a full workout at Citi Field on Friday afternoon, checking perhaps the final boxes he’ll need before the Mets feel comfortable activating him from the injured list. Soto, who has been rehabbing a left calf strain, said he does not anticipate needing a rehab assignment. That means as soon as he’s cleared, he’ll be back in the Mets’ lineup -- theoretically as soon as this weekend.
Soto has been on the IL since July 25. No matter when he returns, he will finish the season with his lowest number of games played over any full season. Not counting his partial 2018 rookie campaign and the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Soto’s previous low was 150 back in 2019. This year, due to multiple IL stints, Soto can max out at 111 games. He’ll likely finish with less than that.
Farther from a return is closer Devin Williams, who has not restarted a throwing program since the Mets diagnosed him with a right shoulder strain earlier this month. While Green continued to say he’s “hopeful” that Williams will pitch again this season, the manager stopped short of guaranteeing it.
“I think we’re at the point where we still hope and anticipate that happening,” Green said. “We’ll make the prudent decision when we get there if there’s any reason to hold him back or not. I think there’s value for him finishing out strong. I think he feels the same way. He’s a baseball player. He wants to be on the mound, wants to pitch.”
Until Williams returns, Kodai Senga will continue to serve as the Mets’ closer. Senga looked dominant in a non-save situation on Friday, striking out two of the three batters he faced while reaching 99.3 mph on his fastball -- his fifth-fastest pitch of the season.
Polanco to start 2027 slowly
As expected, Jorge Polanco underwent left ankle surgery on Wednesday to repair the joint that had been bothering him as far back as March. Green did not commit to Polanco being fully ready for the start of Spring Training, however, saying only that the veteran will be “in a baseball progression” at that time.
Polanco’s season ended with a career-worst .148/.201/.230 slash line over 37 games. He is due $23 million next year in his age-33 season but will likely need to battle Jared Young, among others, for playing time. The Mets could also search outside the organization again for first-base help.