Lucas Duda, the Mets’ primary number three hitter, has four RBI in the last two weeks. Steven Matz had four RBI in his major league debut.
Michael Cuddyer, the Mets’ primary cleanup hitter, has one RBI in the last two weeks. Matz doubled that total in his first at bat.
The Mets starting rotation of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Jon Niese, Bartolo Colon and Matz now has 12 RBI in 135 at bats. Ruben Tejada has 12 RBI in 138 at bats. Eric Campbell has 12 RBI in 128 at bats.
Matz had a great debut on the mound (7 2/3 innings, 2 runs, 5 hits, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts), at the plate (3 for 3 with a double and the aforementioned 4 RBI) and on the basepaths (breaking up a double play at second). No other pitcher has driven in four runs in his debut in the last 100 years. But part of what makes Matz such an overnight sensation is the hitting wasteland the Mets have turned into this year.
Sure, injuries have hurt (it’s painful to note that Matz now has the same number of RBI this season as David Wright), but you can’t expect regular hitting contributions from your pitcher unless you’re a Little League team. Great pitching can get you some low-scoring wins (before the Matz game, the Mets had won three straight by scores of 2-0, 2-1 and 2-1) but the winning run in that last game scored in the 13th inning with the help of two errors. Matz’ amazing debut can’t hide the fact that the Mets are still in dire need of bats that can be in the lineup more than every five or six days.
At least the Mets can’t be beat when it comes to great senior-citizen fans. Just one day after Noah Syndergaard’s 97-year-old great aunt made her own major league debut, attending her first game, Matz’ grandfather stole the show.
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