Marcus Stroman’s Best Mets Start Comes At Opportune Time

Marcus Stroman had his best and deepest outing in a Mets uniform in New York’s 11-1 victory over the Diamondbacks on Thursday afternoon. The 28-year-old surrendered just one earned run on four hits through 6 1/3 innings of work. He walked four and struck out six.

In his last start against the Phillies, the righty couldn’t quite seem to find his groove on the mound and exited the game after just four innings of work-after giving up four earned runs on ten hits. In the thick of a Wild Card race, Stroman stepped up when the team needed him most.

“To be honest with you, my confidence doesn’t waver regardless.” Stroman said, per SNY. “I don’t hold onto a good win, I don’t hold onto a bad loss, truly. I let it go and focus on five days after.”

After walking back-to-back batters in the seventh, Stroman allowed an RBI double for Arizona’s only run of the afternoon. He was lifted after tossing 97 pitches for Daniel Zamora with two on and one out.

A key number from Stroman’s start: he induced ten groundouts and zero flyouts. It was the first time in his career that he’s had fewer than two flyouts in a start per our own Michael Mayer.

The right-hander earned his second win since being traded from Toronto and now has an 8-3 record on the season. He lowered his ERA to 3.35 with a WHIP of 1.338. He owns a 3.4 bWAR.

New York’s starting pitching has the lowest second-half ERA across all of baseball at 3.06. After sweeping the four-game series with the Diamondbacks, the Mets sit just two games out of a Wild Card berth, and will need to continue to dominate on the mound to keep them in the race for playoff baseball.