Tylor Megill doesn't receive any relief from Mets bullpen
Mets starting pitcher Tylor Megill is relieved in the sixth inning of a game against Atlanta on Wednesday at Citi Field. Credit: AP/John Minchillo
They say you never know what you’re going to get when you go to the ballpark, and Tylor Megill has now lived at the very extremes of that adage.
Last time out, he pitched five innings on the way to a combined no-hitter, only the second in franchise history. Friday’s relief was impeccable. The result was improbable. On Wednesday, instead, he got an implosion.
Megill, who didn't allow a hit through four innings but loaded the bases on three singles with one out in the sixth, saw the tandem of Adam Ottavino and Trevor Williams come in and allow seven runs in that inning as Atlanta defeated the Mets, 9-2, at Citi Field.
The Mets came into the game having allowed only eight inherited runners to score all season (helped by stellar starting pitching, which has led to a league-low 19 runners on base for the pitchers coming after). After sweeping the doubleheader Tuesday, the Mets settled for a series split, snapping their string of seven straight winning series to start the season, the most in franchise history. If there was a bright side, it’s that the Mets managed to use only two relievers the day after a doubleheader.
“To be honest, I felt good,” said Ottavino, pitching on his third straight day. “I like to pitch a lot. I have good numbers on the third day, so I can’t use that. It’s immaterial to me.”
The Mets offense, meanwhile, sputtered against Ian Anderson, managing just one runner in scoring position until the sixth. That’s when Pete Alonso hit a one-out double and Eduardo Escobar drove him in with a double to the rightfield corner, cutting the deficit to 7-1. Anderson allowed the one run and five hits with four walks and just a single strikeout over 5 1/3 innings.
Megill, who dropped to 4-1 and saw his ERA balloon from 1.93 to 2.43, allowed nothing but two walks through four. Travis d’Arnaud hit a ball that Francisco Lindor bobbled for an error to reach base leading off the fifth, and Adam Duvall hit a clean single through the left side of the infield for Atlanta’s first hit of the game, and their first runner in scoring position.
Megill got out of that jam, but the big righthander began to unravel slightly in the sixth. Austin Riley was called out at first base, but a manager’s challenge overturned it for an infield hit. Marcell Ozuna and Ozzie Albies followed with singles to load the bases with one out and end Megill’s afternoon in favor of Ottavino. Ottavino, though, walked d’Arnaud on five pitches for the game’s first run, and Duvall followed with a two-run double to left.
“It was a lot of weak contact and it just snowballed,” Megill said. “For the most part, it is what it is . . . I threw well. Obviously mixing all three pitches and throwing them for strikes.”
Ottavino then threw a slider that skittered away from James McCann for a wild pitch, allowing a fourth run to score. Dansby Swanson’s single made it 5-0.
The Mets bullpen continued to hemorrhage after Ottavino was pulled for Williams, who allowed another run-scoring single to Acuna. Matt Olson grounded out to Alonso, who hesitated and considered going home for the double play there, but then tried to get Acuna in a rundown between first and second — something that didn’t quite work, as Acuna safely made it to second and Guillermo Heredia scored to make it a seven-run inning.
Heredia hit a two-run homer in the eighth against Williams to cap Atlanta's scoring. Luis Guillorme hit his first homer of the season in the ninth for the final margin.
“Tylor gave us a good chance to win,” Buck Showalter said. “Trying to hold them down as long as we had — he was the third time through the order — and it’s a good hitting team . . . After yesterday, you know they’re going to come out and try to even up the series.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
