The same week which former New York Knick Jeremy Lin, who captured the city’s attention during his “Linsanity” run, announced his retirement from professional basketball, the greater New York area was treated to a new home grown hero making some history of his own.
Mets pitcher Nolan McLean retired the final 14 batters he saw in his team’s 12-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday, to become the first Mets pitcher to start their career 4-0. Indeed “McLean-Mania” has fully taken root in Mets folklore as New York, who at one point looked as if they might fall out of the playoff picture entirely, now have a stranglehold on the final NL wildcard spot at 75-64.
Currently 5 games up over the Cincinnati Reds, the Mets still have plenty to play for down the stretch as they find themselves, 1 game back of San Diego, and 5.5 games back of Philadelphia entering the homestretch of the season.
“Another impressive outing for him,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “The sweeper and the curve, he didn’t have command of those pitches. … He attacked and went to that sinker when he needed to, the changeup when he needed to, and then continued to mix in the sweeper and curveball.”
“And before you know it, he’s gone six innings and given you a chance to win a baseball game – another good sign for a kid making just his fourth start. He showed a lot of maturity and has got so many weapons.”
Indeed McLean didn’t have his best stuff at the onset of the game, finding himself in trouble in the 1st inning. McLean allowed 6 consecutive Tigers to reach base in the early going, finding himself in an early 2-1 deficit. However he would quickly settle down and finish the night with 7 strikeouts, 3 hits, 3 walks, and 2 runs.
The 24 year old has now given up 2 runs or fewer in each of his big league starts, while his 28 strikeouts rank 2nd all-time behind only Nolan Ryan (29) in a pitchers first 4 starts in franchise history.
“Confidence is high,” said McLean. “It was my first time throwing to [Torrens] in a game, and he called a great game. We resorted to more four-seam, two-seam [fastballs] type of combo. And once we got ahead, we started going back to the sweeper and curveball for some swing and miss.”
With an arsenal of 6 different pitches at his disposal, McLean is able to keep batters guessing, even at the MLB level. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the Mets offence has come alive recently, providing their rotation with ample run support.
Over their last 15 games, the club has scored 8 or more runs in eight of those contests. That kind of offence allows a pitcher to throw with confidence, knowing that a single bad pitch won’t derail his team’s chances of winning.
Up next for the Mets is a 3 game series vs. the Cincinnati Reds which will go a long way in determining the NL wildcard race. A sweep for New York would essentially knock the Reds out of contention, while a sweep the other way would bring the Reds to within 2 games of the Mets.
Game 1 of the series kicks off on Friday at 6:40pm ET.
Photo: D. Benjamin Miller. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.