PHILADELPHIA -- Less than a month ago, Nolan McLean’s ERA was north of 4.00, raising questions about his true ceiling in the Mets' rotation. He did not record a scoreless outing until the final day of June.
Since that time, McLean has been one of the league’s best pitchers, full stop. The rookie right-hander threw six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts in a 6-1 win over the Phillies on Sunday at Citizens Bank Park, extending his streak to a career-high 17 consecutive innings without an earned run.
“He’s one of the best in the game,” Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm said. “He was pretty sharp today, obviously.”
Crisp from the outset, McLean struck out multiple batters in the first, third, fifth and sixth innings, relying on the full breadth of his seven-pitch arsenal. Only twice did the Phillies even sniff a rally. In the second inning, they put two men on base with one out, before McLean induced an inning-ending double play on a 98 mph sinker. In the sixth, the Phillies put two men on base, this time with two outs. McLean responded with one of his filthiest pitches of the afternoon, a 97 mph sinker that broke 18 inches from left to right, freezing Bryce Harper to end the threat.
While the sinker has always been a significant part of McLean’s arsenal, his usage of his four-seamer has spiked over the last six weeks, with success following lately.
“I try to use it as much as possible because I just want to go deeper into games,” McLean said. “Getting whiffs is great and all, but it’s really hard to get a ton of whiffs and go deep into games. You’ve got to have soft contact in there.”
Over his last four starts, McLean has a 0.75 ERA with 29 strikeouts and seven walks over 24 innings.
“With him, he can win up. He can win with spin down. He can win east to west,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said. “And him doing that multiple ways in an outing makes it really tough for hitters the second and third time through the order to know how he’s going to attack them. So, really impressive. When he’s filling up the strike zone, it’s a lot of fun.”