QUEENS, NY — Tylor Megill has squandered his latest opportunity to stay in the New York Mets’ rotation, the team optioning the right-hander on Sunday after struggling the night before against the Houston Astros.
The 28-year-old was tagged for four runs on five hits with six strikeouts and three walks, opening the door for the Astros to mount a comeback from a 6-1 deficit to ultimately pull out a 9-6 victory over a depleted Mets bullpen.
Megill had allowed just one run — a solo shot to Jake Meyers — through the first three innings of his outing before getting tagged for three to pull the Astros within a pair of runs. With two men on and one out in the top of the fourth, he got ahead of Jeremy Pena 0-2 before hanging a curveball that was struck for a double to plate a pair.
“It comes down to executing pitches and being consistent, staying on the attack,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Not only getting ahead but putting hitters away. That’s some of the things that come with executing pitches. Yesterday was a perfect example. He gets ahead in the count and then he hangs a breaking ball to Pena. So just things like that at this level, they’re going to make you pay for it.”
The down day continued a difficult stretch for Megill, who now has posted a 7.43 ERA in his past five starts. That stretch swelled his season ERA from 1.69 on May 28 (three starts) to 5.07 after Saturday.
Suh inconsistencies are nothing new, though. In March and April, he owns a career 2.84 ERA. It swells to 5.66 in May and 6.88 in June.
“Basically, it’s about trusting his stuff,” Mendoza said. “Attack, stay on the attack, and try to put hitters away as quick as possible so he can go deep in games.”
With the Mets’ bullpen in dire straits without Edwin Diaz (suspended) and Drew Smith (forearm), Mendoza still plans on utilizing Megill as a starter rather than transitioning him for reliever depth. Both Christian Scott and Jose Butto are in the mix to start in Megill’s place when his turn in the rotation comes up on Wednesday.
In the meantime, the team called up southpaw Tyler Jay along with right-hander and Staten Island native Matt Festa from Triple-A Syracuse and sent reliever Danny Young down.
“We knew that when that incident happened that we would be facing adversity,” Mendoza said. “…I’ve been saying guys will step up, guys will continue to get opportunities… I’m pretty confident that guys will continue to get big outs for us and we will continue to cycle through it.”
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