After a Friday afternoon news cycle that hit the Mets hard, they needed a win from their fifth starter.<\/p>\n
Except, the Mets didn\u2019t feel comfortable sending Jason Vargas to the mound with a three-run lead. So he was pulled after four innings, en route to the Mets\u2019 5-4 win against the Cardinals on Friday night at Busch Stadium.<\/p>\n
Jacob deGrom put a crimp in the team\u2019s weekend plans when the Mets announced his retreat to the 10-day injured list (right elbow soreness) on Friday afternoon, retroactive to April 16. DeGrom was scheduled to pitch on Saturday in St. Louis to line up a home start against the Phillies next week.<\/p>\n
With the Mets expected to call up a temporary starter from Triple-A Syracuse, Vargas will be forced to move from a fifth starter to a No. 4 pitcher \u2013 at least until deGrom recovers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jason Vargas could soon receive a promotion. (Jeff Roberson\/AP)<\/p>\n
Vargas surrendered one earned run on three hits with three walks and three strikeouts over four innings against the Cardinals. Friday night was surely the 36-year-old\u2019s best shot at posting his second win of the season, but the Mets instead played it safe.<\/p>\n
After batting for himself in the top of the fifth inning, Vargas watched Seth Lugo take the hill for the bottom half of the frame. Lugo, and the majority of the Mets bullpen, was well-rested thanks to Thursday\u2019s off-day and Zack Wheeler\u2019s seven innings in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
In all likelihood, manager Mickey Callaway foresaw the Mets\u2019 three-run lead being better protected using a combination of Lugo, Jeurys Familia, Justin Wilson, Robert Gsellman and Edwin Diaz.<\/p>\n
To be sure, going to a refreshed bullpen for the final 15 outs of the game was the right call. Before Friday night\u2019s four-inning performance, Vargas\u2019 shoddy results brought into question his ongoing place in the Mets\u2019 rotation.<\/p>\n
[More Mets] Jacob deGrom placed on 10-day IL for right elbow soreness, MRI to follow \u00bb<\/p>\n
Vargas entered his third start against the Cardinals on Friday with a 14.21 ERA across 6.1 innings pitched. The left-hander had struggled immensely in his first three outings of the season.<\/p>\n
Vargas allowed two earned runs on eight hard hits to the lowly Marlins in his season debut, then coughed up four earned runs in an inning from the bullpen against the Twins. He recorded just one out and gave up four earned runs in his second start against the Braves.<\/p>\n
The Mets cite Vargas\u2019 inconsistent turn in the rotation as reasoning for his struggles. On Friday, Vargas pitched on a normal five days of rest and held the Cardinals at bay. If consistency was all Vargas needed to pitch more effectively, the Mets would have kept him out there for the fifth inning.<\/p>\n
[More Mets] Mets survive first trip through the rough and tumble NL East \u00bb<\/p>\n
Instead, the Mets bullpen got the job done. Lugo was charged for two earned runs on four hits over two innings. Familia gave up one run to trim the Mets\u2019 lead to 5-4. WIlson put the tying run on third base before Gsellman shut the Cardinals\u2019 rally down with two impressive outs to end the 8th inning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a Friday afternoon news cycle that hit the Mets hard, they needed a win from their fifth starter. Except, the Mets didn’t feel comfortable sending Jason Vargas to the mound with a three-run lead. So he was pulled after four innings, en route to the Mets’ 5-4 win against the Cardinals on Friday night at Busch Stadium. Jacob deGrom put a crimp in the team’s weekend plans when the Mets announced his retreat to the 10-day injured list (right elbow soreness) on Friday afternoon, retroactive to April 16. DeGrom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":18272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18273,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18271\/revisions\/18273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}