Nolan McLean had a lead before he threw a pitch in the fourth start of his big league career on Tuesday night in Detroit. But the Mets’ young right-hander gave that lead right back before he escaped the bottom of the first, allowing two runs on two hits and two walks.
In a worrying sign, it was quite noticeable that McLean didn’t appear to have any feel on two of his three most-used pitches, the sweeper and curveball. In the 24-pitch frame, he threw 11 sweepers with only two going for strikes and spun four curves, resulting in two balls and an RBI single.
That’s when the youngster made the adjustment that ended up powering him to a fourth win in as many big league starts.
“So we started to attack with some harder velo pitches,” Mclean said. After the first, he threw just five sweepers over the next three innings, compared to 10 fastballs, seven changeups, and two cutters. The result? McLean surrendered a walk and a single in the second but closed the day by retiring the last 14 straight Tigers he faced, including six strikeouts.
Manager Carlos Mendoza said that the battle from the 24-year-old “shows a lot of maturity.”
“That’s what you call pitching, understanding that you have to make adjustments and find a way to get through five, six innings,” the skipper said. “I thought he attacked, and then once we got the lead, he continued to stay on the attack. He went to the sinker when he needed to, the changeup when he needed to, and then continued to mix in some of those sweepers and the curveball.”
Luis Torrens, who caught McLean for the first time in the game and added a three-run home run to give the starter a four-run cushion in the fourth, called the pitcher’s performance “excellent.”
“He still surprises me to see what he’s been able to do,” Torrens said, speaking through an interpreter. “The adjustments that he’s been able to make, he’s just been excellent since he’s been up here.”
For Pete Alonso, the rookie’s performances have come as no surprise because of the work he is doing off the field between starts, adding that McLean’s “commitment to his process” has been the most impressive aspect.
“What he’s doing on the field is great and awesome and is helping us win, but I am really thoroughly impressed with his day-to-day process, like the stuff that no one really sees on day one, two, three, and four between starts,” Alonso, who socked two homers in the win, said. “I know everyone is gonna be talking about all the great stuff that he’s doing on the field, which is for sure warranted, but how he’s going about his business, the day-to-day, is super impressive. And that’s the reason why he’s able to do what he’s been able to do on the field.
“Huge huge kudos [for] that. He’s been a pro since he’s come up, and, for me, seeing him go about his business, there’s no shock at all about why he’s finding success.”
After allowing just four runs through his first 26.1 innings of his MLB career, his teammates are excited about the future.
“When he throws the rock, he’s got poise, he’s got grit, obviously the stuff to match that. Really impressed so far with his first few starts,” Alonso said.
“It’s the attitude that he has when he’s on that mound,” Torrens added. “He’s always out there trying to compete. He has that attitude and that flair of a superstar.”
On a night when he didn’t have his best stuff at first, McLean being able to dip into his full arsenal – Statcast had him throw six different pitches – it showed Mendoza that the youngster appears to have “a pretty good feel and idea of what he’s trying to do on the mound.”
“Before you know it, you look up and it’s six innings and he’s giving you a chance to win a baseball game,” the manager said. “Another really good sign for a kid that is making his fourth start at the big league level.”
McLean admitted that he started to “lose confidence” in his sweeper and curve because he wasn’t throwing it for strikes. But, once he “got in a groove” with the higher velo pitches went back and found the feel for his offspeed pitches and had them later in the game, getting a called third strike on both pitches in the fifth and sixth.
“Lotta times throwing fastballs gets me right back on track,” he said. “Once I am able to start locating my heater, I am able to kinda find that feel in my hand again to start manipulating other pitches.”
On the night, he threw just 56 of 90 pitches for strikes, but got 15 outs with eight whiffs on 34 swings (24 percent) and 22 called strikes for a 33 percent called strike-whiff rate.
“I was proud of the way I competed,” McLean said. “Obviously first inning didn’t go the way I wanted, but I had trust in my stuff. And I knew if I could find some pitches later in the game, I knew I was gonna be tough to hit.”
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