The Mets rotation, a mess for much of the season with Clay Holmes out with a fractured leg, Kodai Senga pitching in the minors, Nolan McLean not pitching to expectations and Sean Manaea and David Peterson trading spots in the bullpen, could use a boost.
As Christian Scott makes his eighth start of the season Friday night in San Diego, the right-hander will be looking to build on his two best outings of the season.
He followed up five shutout innings in Miami with five more solid innings against the Marlins at Citi Field in his most recent outing, when Scott allowed just one run and picked up the first win of his major league career.
“I liked what I saw,’’ a National League scout said of Scott’s last two starts. “It’s what you want from a guy coming back from Tommy John surgery: sharper and better stuff as he knocks the rust off and gets back to who he was.”
Of course, the Mets are still learning just who that is, since Scott — who turns 27 this month — showed flashes of significant promise when he was first called up to the majors in 2024, but also struggled badly at times.
And even if this isn’t the way they would have liked the season to develop, the never-ending issues in the rotation have given Scott plenty of opportunities to grow on the mound.
His four-seam fastball velocity is up and more effective than it was in 2024 — as are most of Scott’s pitches, including the cutter he used frequently in his previous start.
But more than just the stuff, the scout was impressed by how Scott bounced back from his first start of the season, when he walked five batters, hit another and was knocked out of the game in the second inning.
“When you’re coming off that surgery, you don’t know how you’re gonna feel at this level and when your command isn’t there, it’s fair to wonder when it’s gonna come back,’’ the scout said. “So for him to shake that off and come back and do what he’s done is as much of a good sign as anything else.”
Scott has walked 11 in 29 innings in six starts since that first start — which was followed by Scott being optioned back to Triple-A.
But before he could make another outing at Syracuse, Scott was back in Queens to replace the injured Senga.
He’s pitched better since then and allowed more than two earned runs just once in his last six starts.
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Since his second start in the majors on May 1, only eight starters have struck out batters at a higher rate than Scott’s 11.48 per nine innings.
And with Holmes out, no Mets starter has been better than Scott, who has seen the Mets win five of his seven starts.
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