Phil Maton has been one of the Mets’ most reliable relievers this season, but the right-hander wasn’t so in the team’s Game 2 loss to the Brewers on Wednesday night.
With the Mets holding on to a slim 3-2 lead in the eighth, manager Carlos Mendoza had his bullpen set up perfectly to clinch the Wild Card series. He had Reed Garrett in the sixth, Ryne Stanek in the seventh and the plan was to use Maton for the eighth and Edwin Diaz to close it out.
Of course, plans don’t always come to fruition as 20-year-old phenom Jackson Chourio took Maton deep to lead off the eighth and tie the game at 3-3. It was Chourio’s second solo shot of the game.
“Young talented hitter who can always fight off good fastballs,” Maton said of Chourio after the game. “Overall happy with my pitch selection. Execution is more in the box than I would have liked. Taking advantage of trying to go to the four-seamer after the sinker and just a good piece of hitting.”
Maton continued to talk about how the execution of his pitches was his issue more than the pitch selection on Wednesday, even in the at-bat where he allowed a two-run home run to Garrett Mitchell on a hanging curveball that put the Brewers in the lead for good.
“Too much plate with the curveball, but we were happy going first-pitch curve to get ahead,” Maton explained of the Mitchell at-bat. “Just one of those things where he puts a good swing on it, nine times out of 10 I get a fly ball to center field for a free out. He put a good swing on it and you tip your cap.”
Mendoza said that he liked the Chourio matchup for Maton, so much so that when he was asked if he thought of leaving Stanek — who pitched a perfect seventh — in to start the eighth he said he didn’t like it.
The Mets skipper also said that while Diaz was available, they only wanted to get three outs from him. Understandable considering the workload the Mets closer endured on Monday in Atlanta.
But the same could be said of Maton. The 31-year-old has pitched in four of the Mets’ last five games, including Wednesday, so perhaps Maton is suffering from fatigue. The Kentucky native brushed that off saying “Playoff baseball, adrenaline is flowing. Everything is feeling good” and that he’s available for Thursday’s winner-take-all game.
In 31 appearances since being acquired from the Rays in July, Maton has been great. He pitched to a 2.51 ERA and a 0.837 WHIP. In that time in Flushing, he allowed just one home run.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” Maton said of his outing. “Would rather have given that up in the regular season game. Just went over the iPad looking at the pitches, and overall pretty happy with my pitch selection. My execution, a little too much plate with some of them. It’s one of those situations where they just beat me today and it’s easier to rest on that. Ultimately, we have to take care of business tomorrow and respond.”
The Mets will look to stave off elimination and get to the NLDS when they take on the Brewers with Maton and the rest of the bullpen ready to go on Thursday night.
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