ATLANTA — The Mets thought that they had discovered an answer to their lack of left-handed reduction pitching with Adam Ottavino this season. But proper now, the Mets are being uncovered for each mistake they make and never carrying two left-handers within the bullpen may be a type of errors.
Situational left-handers have type of passed by the wayside with the three-batter minimal rule, and there are right-handers that boast good splits towards left-handed hitters. But there are occasions when the Mets might have used a lefty in large spots.
The solely left-hander within the bullpen is Brooks Raley, and the Mets view him as a high-leverage reliever, which makes it powerful to make use of him in middle-inning conditions which may dictate the necessity for a lefty.
Raley got here into Wednesday evening’s recreation towards the Atlanta Braves with two out and none on within the backside of the seventh to face left-handed hitter Eddie Rosario then remained within the recreation for the underside of the eighth to face switch-hitter Ozzie Albies and right-hander Marcell Ozuna. After a double by Ozuna, the Mets took him out and introduced in Ottavino to face right-handed Orlando Arcia and left-handed Michael Harris II.
Coming into the season, Ottavino hadn’t beforehand had nice splits towards lefties. But this season, the veteran righty and Brooklyn native has held left-handers to a .200 common partially due to the cutter.
“I changed up my pitch mix a little bit and I’ve been just trying different things because it’s been a struggle over the years,” Ottavino lately informed the Daily News. “I’ve had stretches where I’ve been good against them, but nothing consistent, so I’m not just trying to stay the same, trying to mix it up as much as possible. I’ve been throwing more changeups, more cutters. It’s early still, but I feel like I’m on the right track.”
By now, you most likely know what occurred when Ottavino confronted Harris: The outfielder homered off Ottavino and the Mets misplaced 7-5 within the second recreation of a three-game sequence. Ottavino left a cutter out over the plate. The pitch was good, however the location was off. Ottavino has given up 4 dwelling runs this season, all to left-handed hitters.
“Learning lessons so far this year with it,” Ottavino stated. “Throwing the cutter a lot more, given up three homers on it basically in the same location each time. Kind of being too much down in the zone. That pitch has got to be higher or more inside or below the zone, so I’ve got three options there. I just keep making that mistake and paying the price.”
Some questioned why Raley wasn’t given the leeway to complete the inning. You might’ve additionally made an argument for flipping Ottavino and Raley. The Braves have some harmful left-handed bats and supervisor Brian Snitker does a superb job of breaking them up within the batting order to pressure opposing managers to make powerful bullpen selections.
The Mets say they’re pleased with the place the bullpen stands, however the starters not going deep into video games in April and far of May has created a domino impact. The reduction group that helped the Mets choose up some key wins early within the season hasn’t been the identical over the previous few weeks. Of course, that is all a domino impact created by the lack of Edwin Diaz, to start with.
“There are ebbs and flows to the bullpen,” supervisor Buck Showalter stated Thursday at Truist Park. “You don’t always have eight guys operating on the same level, that’s why we have what you call the high and low-leverage guys. Sometimes those guys don’t follow what they did the last time out.”
In the previous, Showalter has expressed a need for extra left-handed reduction pitching. But the one left-handed reliever they may promote from Triple-A Syracuse is Zach Muckenhirn. The Mets might use Joey Lucchesi out of the bullpen however they want the beginning depth. Nathan Lavender was lately promoted from Double-A Binghamton and the membership isn’t wanting to rush the event of a prized prospect.
For now, the Mets must work with what they’ve to search out solutions for left-handed sluggers.
“I don’t think about what might appear,” Showalter stated. “I’m happy with what we have.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com