SAN DIEGO -- After his previous three starts, Nolan McLean knew he needed to adjust. The Mets phenom was struggling for the first time in his young big league career, an indication that maybe underneath all the nastiness and flashy stuff, he is, in fact, human.
While many of those struggles persisted at times in the Mets’ 3-2 loss to the Padres on Saturday night at Petco Park, the results were better. Much better.
The 24-year-old held San Diego to one run over six innings, lowering his season ERA to 3.98.
“I thought he was pretty good tonight, a lot better,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Especially with the fastball command -- both of them, the sinker, the four-seam. I thought he was in good rhythm, the pace was good. He attacked. The sweeper kind of came and went, but overall he battled, made pitches when he needed to. And for him to go six there was huge.”
McLean and the Mets knew that in order to get back on track, the right-hander was going to have to throw his secondary pitches for strikes. Command in general had been an issue over his previous three starts, in which he posted a 9.00 ERA with 14 earned runs and nine walks.
“It’s part of being here in the big leagues, teams are going to make adjustments,” Mendoza said before the game. “We’ve seen that from the last few lineups that have faced him. I think what makes him who he is is his ability to throw a lot of different pitches in the strike zone -- the sweeper, the curveball, the sinker, the cutter. And he’s been getting behind.
“Hopefully he gets back on track here.”
Back on track? Not quite, but it was still a significant improvement.
“Physically, I felt great,” McLean said. “Felt like I was trending in the right direction [deeper] into the game.”
McLean struck out five batters while allowing just three hits and three walks -- the latter a solid rebound after issuing a career-high five free passes in his last start against Miami.
McLean was sharp out of the gate, punching out Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill in succession to begin his evening before retiring four of the next five batters.
He rebounded from a troublesome third that required 28 pitches to escape with a 1-2-3 fourth that included a nice leaping throw to get Gavin Sheets at first on a weak tapper toward third base.
But McLean had to evade danger once more in the fifth, facing men on the corners with two outs before a failed double steal attempt by the Padres allowed him to get out of the frame unscathed. He finished strong with a clean sixth, reaching a career-high 101 pitches.
McLean registered 10 whiffs, three each on his four-seamer and cutter, the latter of which he was working in to left-handed batters while mixing in the occasional back-foot sweeper. As far as landing those secondaries for strikes, McLean was inconsistent with his sweeper at a 56% strike rate -- down 6% from his last start -- but a sharper sinker and elevated four-seam usage helped offset those shortcomings.
“I think the biggest thing is getting different pitches in the zone,” McLean said. “It’s much easier to hit when you know one pitch is going to be a strike and the other one isn’t. That’s been the main focus.”
Austin Warren took over in the seventh with the Mets working with a 2-1 lead following Marcus Semien’s solo homer in the top half of the inning and got the first two outs, before a missed ground ball up the first-base line put Sung-Mun Song on. That set up catcher Freddy Fermin, who broke an 0-for-30 skid by tagging a go-ahead two-run shot that ultimately led to the win for San Diego.
“Made a good pitch, [Fermin] made a better swing,” Warren said.
Even if the overall result was disappointing for the Mets, they have to be encouraged by McLean.
Between injuries to Clay Holmes (fractured right fibula) and Kodai Senga (lumbar spine inflammation) and inconsistency from David Peterson and Freddy Peralta, the Mets need stability in their rotation. Christian Scott has delivered in that sense, but the Mets are counting on McLean to do the same.
He expects just as much from himself.
“I try to take pride in just forgetting what happened,” McLean said. “Even tonight, try to flush it as quickly as possible, because it’s pretty irrelevant now, and it’s onto the next start.”