All season, the Mets‘ beginning rotation has been a reminder of how troublesome it’s to get massive league hitters out.
Nolan McLean by no means obtained that memo.
In solely his third begin on a serious league mound, and in yet one more essential rivalry sport in the course of a playoff chase, the rookie righty completely suffocated the Philadelphia Phillies in a 6-0 win on Wednesday night time at Citi Subject. The Mets accomplished the sweep of the NL East rivals, handing them their tenth straight loss at Citi Subject.
McLean grew to become the primary rookie pitcher in Mets historical past to win all three of his first selections in what was fairly presumably one of the vital spectacular beginning pitching performances of the crew’s season.
“All I can say is wow,” mentioned supervisor Carlos Mendoza. “Super impressive. He dominated one of the better lineups in the league and he made it look easy.”
It’s not simply the myriad of weapons McLean possesses that makes him so efficient, it’s how he makes use of them and when, and his execution. The 24-year-old right-hander allowed solely 4 hits and barely even labored into three-ball counts, going through just one over the minimal via seven innings. There was no intimidation issue when it got here to going through MVP-caliber hitters like Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. McLean displayed the boldness and poise of a veteran far past his years.
“He has ice in his veins,” mentioned third baseman Mark Vientos. “He’s cool when the moment is tight and hot. I think that that shows a lot about him.”
However make no mistake, the weapons are lethal.
“He can backdoor the sweeper pretty well and pretty consistently,” mentioned catcher Hayden Senger. “He can front-hip the two-seam, he can go changeup off the two-seam, you can go sweeper off the two-seam. It’s like he’s got a lot of options and I can call a lot of different pitches.”
The one hope the NL East leaders had was to get to the bullpen, however McLean labored so shortly and effectively that he solely wanted 75 pitches to get via seven innings, and 95 to get via eight.
Hope was gone for Philadelphia lengthy earlier than he went again out for the eighth inning, however any that they had left was fleeting. By that time, they had been already down 6-0, due to a two-run house run by Vientos within the backside of the seventh, his sixth in his final 10 video games.
“I knew about the lineup going into it — I was going to have my hands full and was going to have to have some good stuff,” McLean mentioned. “Top to bottom, they’re stacked with hitters, so I definitely know I needed to bring some good stuff tonight.”
He positive introduced it.
The loss for the Phillies (76-57) reduce the division lead over the Mets (72-61) to solely 4.0 video games. The 2 will play a four-game collection at Residents Financial institution Park beginning Sept. 8, which may decide the winner of the NL east. The Mets keep the third NL Wild Card spot behind the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs.
“We’ve got, I don’t know how many games left, but every game counts,” Mendoza mentioned. “That’s that’s our mentality right now coming here — we’ve got to take care of business.”
The Mets opened the third inning with 5 straight singles off right-hander Taijuan Walker to go up 3-0. They pushed yet another throughout within the fifth with two outs, spelling the top for the previous Mets starter. Walker gave up 4 earned runs on 10 hits, walked one and struck out three (4-7).
Brandon Nimmo, the walk-off hero for the Mets one night time prior, had a three-hit night time, Brett Baty with 2-for-4 with a double and Vientos prolonged his season-long hitting streak to 10 video games with an RBI single within the fifth. His house run off left-hander Tanner Banks within the seventh, No. 13 on the 12 months, gave him three RBI.
“We’ve been taking at-bats very seriously,” Vientos mentioned. “Every at-bat, no matter the score. It’s important. I think you want to be locked in every single at-bat. Sometimes, depending on the score and depending on how the game is going, we lose focus. But I think the past couple games we’ve been playing, we’ve been locked in.”
However the true star was McLean.
A two-out single by Harper within the seventh introduced up catcher J.T. Realmuto, who obtained forward 3-0. Mclean battled again to work the depend full. He threw a sweeper on the sixth pitch, and Realmuto popped it straight up.
The Phillies had runners on the corners within the high of the eighth after McLean gave up back-to-back singles to begin the inning, prompting pitching coach Jeremy Hefner to return out to the mound to purchase him a while to speak to Senger.
“I made some good pitches,” McLean mentioned. “They were able to put the bat to it anyway, so it wasn’t necessarily like a lack of execution, just sometimes good offense beats good pitching.”
He retired the following three so as.
McLean’s ultimate line: 8.0 scoreless innings, no walks and 6 strikeouts.
“Obviously, the hitters here are the best in the world, and I know that,” McLean mentioned. “But I also know I have good stuff, and if I go out there and execute, I can get a lot of guys out as well.”
Initially Printed: August 27, 2025 at 9:41 PM EDT
