NEW YORK -- Mets starter Christian Scott entered Saturday’s game against the Marlins having thrown 1,250 pitches across 15 total starts between 2024 and 2026 in his Major League career, each without earning a victory in the big leagues. These totals aren’t eye-popping, but after having his rookie campaign cut short by Tommy John surgery on his right arm, every moment between him and win No. 1 started to feel a little longer.
After 96 pitches at Citi Field on Saturday, Scott was finally able to check off a few more boxes in the Majors.
Scott earned the first win of his career in the Mets’ 6-1 win against the Marlins. He tossed five innings of one-run ball, notching eight strikeouts while scattering five hits and two walks. The Mets broke through against Miami starter Tyler Phillips in the fourth frame with a two-run double from Mark Vientos and an RBI single by Marcus Semien powering the three-run spurt, helping New York capture its third straight win.
“It’s awesome,” Scott said smiling. “Took longer than I expected or wanted, but yeah, it’s nice to have that first one under my belt. The defense played great today. I thought [Hayden] Senger called a hell of a game.”
Scott turned towards a two-pitch arsenal against Miami, leaning almost exclusively on his fastball (39 pitches) and sweeper (36 pitches) while shelving his cutter (seven pitches) -- which he entered Saturday throwing 20% of the time. The result was producing 11 whiffs on the way to eight strikeouts, tying a career high that he most recently reached on May 1 against the Angels.
Most encouragingly, six of Scott’s eight strikeouts came against left-handed hitters in the appropriately stacked Marlins lineup. Opposing lefty batters are now hitting just .200 against Scott this season (75 ABs), with the right-hander having allowed just three doubles and a .542 OPS. In Scott’s debut season in ‘24, left-handed hitters slashed .333/.375/.567 against him in 90 ABs.
On Saturday, whenever Scott called upon his secondary and tertiary pitches -- splitter, cutter and sinker -- they were effective for either producing whiffs or dropping into the strike zone.
“When he came up in 2024, it was fastball-heavy, a fastball at the top of the zone,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He still has that, but now you’ve got the sweeper, he’s got the split, there’s a little bit of a cutter there, too. He can get righties and lefties out, and there’s a lot of different weapons he could go to now.”
The right-hander, who not long ago was a prized jewel among the prospect group of Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong, received a fair bit of help from the Mets’ other exciting youngsters. In the fourth inning, right fielder Carson Benge raced back to track down Kyle Stowers’ deep fly ball in the right-center-field gap, making a leaping grab and colliding face-first with the wall. After the Marlins responded with one run in the fifth inning, Otto Lopez laced another line drive to the right-center gap with a runner on first. Center fielder A.J. Ewing got a great jump and reached a sprint speed of 28.6 feet/second, robbing Lopez to end Miami’s threat.
But maybe the most meaningful contribution of the day came from Senger, Scott’s batterymate, who hit his first career home run off reliever Lake Bachar in the seventh. The entire Mets dugout erupted with elation when Senger’s home run sailed over the left-field fence, matching the catcher’s ear-to-ear smile and fist pumps as he rounded the basepaths. Senger had hit 34 homers across eight Minor League seasons -- how did his first at Citi Field compare?
“Maybe a little better than the ones in Triple-A,” Senger said, chuckling. “One of the best feelings I’ve had.”
With Senger having joined the Mets’ organization in 2018 and Scott getting drafted by the club in the fifth round in 2021, the pair have made many stops together across New York’s various affiliates. In the Minors alone, Senger started as the catcher for Scott 17 times before their shared milestone day on Saturday. Those numbers don’t even take into consideration the countless workouts, warm-up throws and meals shared along the way.
“The smile on his face as he was running the bases and in the dugout was awesome,” Scott said. “But getting that shower together was nice as well. I’ll have peanut butter in my hair for a couple of weeks now.”
Scott and Senger have seen each other evolve on their long journeys to their MLB “firsts.” Senger shared that he believes Scott’s growing confidence to land pitches in the zone and be more aggressive is the key for the right-hander as he continues to find his footing in the big leagues. But for now, at least for a moment, the biggest thing was seeing how their shared belief in each other came to fruition.
“I’ve had him for a while, and I caught a lot of his games,” Senger said. “And I think being able to share with him is really cool. I kind of thought we would do it together. I just had a feeling.”