Category: Wild Pitches

Top Mets Starters Since 2020: Senga Rising

Posted on by metbaseball

Since 2020, only three Mets starters have recorded 20 or more starts in which they allowed two or fewer runs over six or more innings.

David Peterson leads the way with 93 starts since debuting in 2020. He remains with the team and has been a consistent presence in the rotation.

In second is Max Scherzer, who made 42 starts for the Mets across the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

Third is Jacob deGrom, whose nine-year Mets career (2014–2022) included 38 starts from 2020 to 2022.

Now sitting just behind deGrom in fourth is Kodai Senga, who debuted in 2023 and has also made 38 starts over his first three seasons. As of the third month of his third season, he needs just three more starts of six-plus innings with two or fewer runs allowed to pass deGrom on this list.

The Wildest Way to Win

Posted on by metbaseball

I didn’t intend on starting the Wild Pitches section with a headline-deserving event, but when it comes to baseball, sometimes the wildest moments—literally—are the most memorable.

You don’t often see a game end like the Phillies-Nationals matchup did on April 29, 2025. One moment it’s a nail-biter, fans holding their breath—and the next, without a bat touching the ball, it’s over. A wild pitch, a mad dash for home, and chaos. It’s not the cleanest way to win, but that’s baseball: unpredictable, sometimes messy, and occasionally, downright wild.

Here’s how one such game ended.

It was the bottom of the ninth at Citizens Bank Park, tied 6–6, with Bryson Stott standing on third, the potential winning run. Two outs, with a 2-0 count. Nationals reliever Kyle Finnegan delivered a low, outside pitch that bounced away from the catcher. In a flash, Stott broke for home. He slid head-first into the plate, and just like that, the Phillies walked it off on a wild pitch. The dugout poured onto the field, the fans erupted, and the Nationals stood stunned.

Want to dig deeper into what happened?

You can watch the game-ending play and read the story about it in Paul Casella’s piece, “That was a crazy game’: Anatomy of a bonkers Phillies win.”

My favorite part of Casella’s article: “Stott came sprinting down the line and dived for home. His hand touched the plate, just as Nats reliever Kyle Finnegan’s foot came down directly on top of it, leading to a brief injury scare amid the jubilation.”

Stott was wearing gloves, but the one on his left hand came off during the slide.

Superstitious about 13? The Phillies won 7-6.

Idea generator: screwball.ai

Welcome to Wild Pitches

Posted on by metbaseball

Casual fans see the final score. Dedicated fans follow the standings. But the truly curious ask why a team’s record looks the way it does. In this new section of the blog, we go beyond the traditional stats you’ll find in the box score or hear repeated during game broadcasts. We dig into the subtle numbers, the patterns hiding in plain sight, crazy wins and losses, and the trends that hint at what’s really going on beneath a team’s win-loss column.

Take the Mets, for example. If it feels like they’ve burned through their bullpen this year, you’re not alone—but the numbers tell a more nuanced story. Through early May, they ranked 15th in total relief appearances across MLB. So what’s behind that gut feeling? Could it be that the Mets aren’t cycling through arms quickly, but instead leaning too heavily on the same few relievers each night? Maybe the eye test is noticing something the stats don’t show—until you dig a little deeper.

That’s exactly what this space is for. We’ll unpack the things that don’t get discussed on SportsCenter or in post-game pressers: bullpen usage quirks, pitch sequencing trends, unexpected lineup efficiencies, and more. If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “That seems weird…” while watching a game, this is the place where we’ll chase that hunch with data.