The Mets’ decision to flip Steven Matz and Marcus Stroman in the rotation shines a light on a season-long dilemma for one of those starters, and how the team made a smart move to fix it.
Matz has struggled through some perplexing outings when he’s pitched away from Citi Field. His latest road start, a four-inning rough-up at Coors Field, forced the Mets to move his start back a day. Matz was scheduled to pitch in Cincinnati for the series finale on Sunday. Instead, Stroman will face off against right-hander Trevor Bauer on short rest and hurl his 10th start for the Mets.
After the Rockies knocked Matz out with seven earned runs on six hits in a loss on Monday, the left-hander’s road ERA jumped to 6.62 on the season. On the flip side, Matz is pitching spectacularly well at home, flashing a 1.94 ERA over 13 starts within the familiar confines of Citi Field.
“Maybe three really bad starts probably bloats it a little bit, including this one,” Matz said on his home/road split following his latest blowup Monday night. “Other than that, I’m not really sure. I like pitching at Citi Field, I feel comfortable there. I’ve had a few really bad starts on the road and that probably bloats it quite a bit.”
The first “really bad start” was on April 16 at Philadelphia. Matz exited in the first inning without recording a single out. He gave up eight runs, six earned, on four hits — including a pair of three-run home runs to Scott Kingery and Maikel Franco. That was only Matz’s third road start of the season and fourth overall, but it was a sign of lousy outings to come.
After that infamous start at Philadelphia, Matz bounced back for three straight excellent road outings against the Brewers, Marlins and Dodgers. It seemed like things were looking up for Matz after a solid six-inning start at Los Angeles. Matz limited the Dodgers’ potent lineup to two earned runs on four hits with six strikeouts to lead the Mets to a win.
But Matz stumbled again through three starts away from Citi Field in June. The southpaw allowed five earned runs each to the Diamondbacks and Braves at Arizona and Atlanta, but the real killer was his next road start on June 24 at Philadelphia. Citizens Bank Park was no friend of Matz’ again. He was charged with seven earned runs on 10 hits with three home runs over 4.1 innings. Matz’s road ERA was 7.07 after that fateful early-summer day.
Mats said there isn’t a sense of confusion weighing on his mind in regards to his stark home/road splits. Both he and his manager, Mickey Callaway, believe there’s a degree of luck (or lack thereof) involved.
“I feel the same going into every start honestly,” Matz said. “Not really sure why. I don’t even feel like I need to look into anything. I know what I have to do to get guys out. Sometimes I don’t do that and I happen to be on the road at the time.”
Even so, it’s smart of the Mets to move Matz’s start back a day so he can open a three-game series against the Marlins at Citi Field. The pressure is on Stroman to perform on shorter rest, but the right-hander actually has a lower ERA on the road (2.65) than he does at home (3.67) between the Blue Jays and Mets this season. Stroman will give the Amazin’s a better shot at securing the series finale and a much-needed win as the Mets attempt to sneak into the playoffs.
Which means Matz’s final road start of the season was his four-inning outing at Colorado on Monday. He’ll go back to the drawing board in the offseason to try and correct some of those baffling mistakes away from Citi Field.
“I think we talk about these a lot,” Callaway said of Matz’s road struggles. “You really can’t (put your finger on them). Year to year they change. There’s really no rhyme or reason to it. It’s unexplainable sometimes.”
