Mets rookie Thomas Szapucki torched in Giants blowout
SAN FRANCISCO — Thomas Szapucki’s first career major league start could have been worse, but not much.
The rookie left-hander left his heart, along with assorted other organs, in San Francisco after the Giants dissected him over a brutal 13-batter stretch on Wednesday.
And after this 9-3 loss at Oracle Park, the Mets were left with the question of where they should turn for the rotation, with Max Scherzer and Tylor Megill on the injured list and Jacob deGrom yet to throw a pitch this season.
The Mets (29-17) lost their second series of the season and finished a .500 road trip that included a stop at Colorado.
The 25-year-old Szapucki, recalled from Triple-A Syracuse earlier Wednesday, barely survived the first inning and got knocked out in the second. The Giants hit four home runs against him and scored nine runs on seven hits and three walks.
“It sucks doing something like that,” Szapucki said. “But I was shown things I need to work on today and I’m going to get to work and be better.”
Where can the Mets turn next? Options might include Connor Grey, a right-hander who hasn’t allowed a run in his last three starts for Syracuse, if the Mets don’t revert to Trevor Williams, who perhaps bolstered his case with 3 ²/₃ innings of shutout relief Wednesday. The right-hander was working on three days’ rest after starting the nightcap of the doubleheader Saturday at Colorado. The Mets will need that spot in the rotation Tuesday against the Nationals.
“Another great job by Trev,” manager Buck Showalter said. “That’s big for us to get through those innings and when we talked before the game we said that is the way we would have to do it if we had a short start. If Trevor doesn’t do that job we’re using some guys that don’t need to be pitching.”
Szapucki struck out Darin Ruf leading off the first inning, but an avalanche ensued. Wilmer Flores doubled and Mike Yastrzemski walked before Evan Longoria crushed a homer to center field. The Giants were just getting started. After Thairo Estrada walked, Joc Pederson homered. The blast was the fourth in two days for Pederson, who had willed the Giants to victory Tuesday night with a three-homer performance in which he also knocked in the tying run against Edwin Diaz in the ninth.
In the second inning Wednesday, Szapucki surrendered doubles to Donovan Walton and Flores that extended the Giants’ lead to 6-0 before Yastrzemski and Longoria blasted consecutive homers that ended Szapucki’s afternoon.
“The stuff plays,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said, noting that he spent much of the afternoon talking with Szapucki, relating his own experiences as a young pitcher in that spot. “The fastball plays. The curveball plays. The changeup plays. It’s the old adage: You have to get ahead and then, when you have guys with two strikes, you have to finish them and make pitches with runners on base and those types of things. As a young player those are things he’s going to have to learn and he’s capable of that.”
Jeff McNeil went sliding into a side wall in left field – with his left knee leading – to catch Donovan Walton’s fly ball in the third inning. McNeil, in obvious discomfort, was examined by the trainer and spoke with Showalter before remaining in the game to complete the half inning. But Travis Jankowski pinch-hit for McNeil in the top of the fourth. McNeil, according to the Mets, has a left-knee contusion, but he said he expects to play Friday.
The rest of the Mets’ regulars stayed in the game, even with the Giants ahead by seven runs after seven innings. A night earlier, the Mets erased a six-run deficit after six innings before losing in a walkoff.
“I was talking to Mark Canha and said, ‘Normally I might be taking some guys out of the game,’ ” Showalter said. “But with this club, you guys have made it tough.”
