LOS ANGELES -- When Nolan McLean arrived in the Majors last August, he joined a Mets team that had lost 14 of its previous 16 games. No pressure, right? Of McLean’s 12 career starts, in fact, eight have come after losses.
Time and again, despite McLean’s age and inexperience, the Mets have relied on him to be a stopper. Time and again, despite his age and inexperience, McLean has played that role with aplomb. The Mets entered Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers having won five of the first seven games he started following a defeat.
Once again, McLean embraced his role, but for the third time in his career, the Mets could not parlay his efforts into a slump-busting win. Instead, they dropped a 2-1 game to the Dodgers on Kyle Tucker’s RBI single off Brooks Raley in the eighth. McLean took a no-decision as the Mets lost their seventh in a row.
Staked to a 1-0 lead thanks to Francisco Lindor’s 32nd career leadoff homer, McLean gave it back almost immediately in the bottom of the first on a walk, a double and a Freddie Freeman RBI groundout. But that sparked a run of 13 consecutive outs for McLean, who matched Yamamoto inning for inning despite the latter’s 20-batter streak of perfection following Lindor’s homer.
Seemingly growing sharper as the game wore on, McLean struck out the side in the fourth and threw first-pitch strikes to eight consecutive batters from the fifth through seventh innings. When the Mets removed him after seven innings of one-run ball on 95 pitches, the Dodgers struck immediately, touching Raley for two walks and Tucker’s single.
McLean allowed just two hits and two walks, with eight strikeouts.