For The Upside Down Mets, More Worries About Haunted Young Pitchers

For nearly three hours last night, the darkly comic references about the Mets’ seventh straight loss — but the first on a “Stranger Things” night at Citi Field — easily wrote themselves.

Of course the Mets’ three-month funk, grislier and longer than any Season 4 episode, would continue with an 8-3 loss to the Rangers. The defeat, coupled with the Giants’ 5-1 win over the Dodgers, cut the Mets’ lead in the race for the final wild card to a half-game — an unimaginable horror for a team that had the best record in baseball at 45-24 through June 12.

And of course the Mets, mired forever in the Upside Down, would not only get routed in Jacob deGrom’s return to Citi Field but would surrender six runs and dip into the bullpen before deGrom — the poster boy for meager run support during his time in Queens — even threw his first pitch. (The Mets scored as many as six runs with deGrom on the mound 29 times in his 209 regular season starts)

By the fourth inning, the scoreboard was no longer airing pictures of Demigorgans in place of the usual mug shots for Rangers players, presumably because fictional horrors couldn’t match the real thing. By the ninth inning, when Ryan Helsley took the mound to the now-ironic and badly misplaced “Hells Bells,” the Mets could have used Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin and threw a ceremonial first pitch that at least landed in the vicinity of home plate.

But any rueful chuckles evaporated during the 75 seconds or so it took for a shaken Jonah Tong — who at 22 years old is younger than most of the so-called kids on “Stranger Things” — to conduct his press conference in the Mets’ locker room.

Tong gave up six runs while recording just two outs — the shortest start by a Mets pitcher since David Peterson allowed five runs in one-third of an inning on June 2, 2021.

“I mean…” Tong said as he shook his head and his voice wavered. “I, uhh, didn’t (have) the start I had for sure wanted. Definitely hurts just knowing that I put some more stress on the bullpen.”

It’s one thing to find dark humor in the waning days of a season that began with so much promise and looks increasingly likely to end with the greatest collapse in baseball history. But there’s nothing funny about the Mets needing rookie pitchers to save their season — or the long-term impact this might have on the franchise as well as Tong, Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean, each of whom are scheduled to start the final two games against the Rangers.

Just because David Stearns didn’t pull a Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine was there and some of us still think of him as the guy from “VisionQuest”) and intentionally place the Mets in this position doesn’t make his actions any more excusable.

If Stearns isn’t going to invest in high-end free agent starting pitching — which is a completely understandable philosophy given the sky-high prices for ace-caliber pitchers and their inherent fragility — then he has to hit on the mid-rotation hurlers he signs at more affordable rates. He was 2-for-2 there last year with Sean Manaea and Luis Severino but is basically 0-fer this year.

Manaea, who was re-signed to a three-year deal, missed the first half with a lat injury and has a 5.76 ERA while pitching through a bone chip in his left elbow. Griffin Canning had a 3.77 ERA before tearing his Achilles and Clay Holmes, who is transitioning to the rotation, has made a team-high 29 starts but has gotten just six outs beyond the fifth inning since June 13. And selecting Yankees bust Frankie Montas (a 6.28 ERA before undergoing a second Tommy John surgery) over New York-tested Severino (a 3.11 ERA away from the Athletics’ home minor league ballpark) sure was a choice.

Stearns also has to construct a reliable bullpen that’s going to be capable of getting nine outs a night for seven months. But 37 relievers have combined to post a 4.10 ERA this year, up from 28 relievers recording a 4.03 mark last year.

Falling short in these areas means Stearns has endangered the most important job for any general manager — building a deep and reliable pipeline of starting pitching.

Predecessors Billy Eppler and Zack Scott left Stearns a decent cupboard in Tong, McLean and Sproat along with the injured Christian Scott, all of whom, like any 21st century prospect, have been protected almost to a fault. Only Scott (once) has ever reached 100 pitches in a start.

Overuse of the members of Generation K — Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson — during their rookie seasons is often blamed for the trio’s inability to stay healthy and effective. But nobody knew (or thought they knew) any better in 1995, when 138 pitchers 24 years of age or younger threw at least 110 pitches in a start. The only rookie pitcher to throw at least 110 pitches in an outing over the last three seasons is Andrew Abbott, who did it once for the Reds in 2023.

Now the Mets have to hope rushing Tong and/or Sproat to the majors — after McLean’s deGrom-esque emergence raised the stakes for the Mets and the expectations for his fellow rookies — doesn’t provide a different yet no less imposing road block to success for the homegrown pitchers.

Tong’s struggles were a reminder last night was just his fifth start above Double-A. Sproat posted a 4.24 ERA at Syracuse this season and has a 4.87 ERA in 33 Triple-A appearances.

A simple glance around the Mets’ locker room or across the field provides plenty of evidence pitchers can recover from a rough patch early in their careers. Peterson, an All-Star this season and the Mets’ most reliable starter, was among the players to provide Tong encouragement late last night. DeGrom’s won two Cy Young Awards and built one of the most interesting Hall of Fame cases of all-time ever since a dugout pep talk from Terry Collins after he gave up eight runs against (of all teams) the Rangers in June 2017.

“There’s going to be times like this,” Brandon Nimmo said. “I would just go there and console him and just say, listen, it’s not going to be the last time this happens to you and it’s not fun to go through. But this is not going to define him or his career.”

If it does, Stearns and the Mets will be haunted by this season long after the final out is made.