Christian Scott works through up-and-down effort to pick up quality start against Braves
NEW YORK — Christian Scott's MLB debut could be characterized as a bit of a dream.
The Mets rookie right-hander got to pitch in his home state of Florida before a crowd of his family, friends and the 7 Line. For the majority of Scott's 6⅔ innings, he dominated the opposing Rays.
On Saturday afternoon as Scott made his Citi Field debut, he was handed a little bit of a reality check against the Braves.
The National League East rivals provided a little bit more of a challenge for Scott, who allowed three earned runs on six hits and two walks across six innings at home. Scott went back out for the seventh but was pulled after giving up a walk and a single to lead off the frame.
Despite allowing three runs between the third and fourth innings, Scott was able to reel it back in to deliver his second straight quality start in as many starts.
"He’s a pretty confident kid," Carlos Mendoza said. "The poise, his body language, his demeanor on the mound. I don’t think this situation’s too big for him. He knows he’s good. He knows his stuff plays here and he’s facing a pretty good lineup and he wasn’t intimidated at all."
The Mets went hitless against the Braves for 8.2 innings, with J.D. Martinez providing the lone offense in a 4-1 loss to the Braves on Saturday afternoon at Citi Field. The defeat moved Scott to 0-1 after two starts as his ERA drifted up to 2.84.
Scott started hot and continued to showcase his swing-and-miss arsenal. He deployed a healthy sampling of fastballs early and picked up strikeouts against three of the first four Braves batters — Ronald Acuna Jr., Austin Riley and Matt Olson. After giving up his first hit of the game, he erased it with an inning-ending double play against Travis d'Arnaud.
"There’s a lot of great hitters in that lineup," Scott said. "I have a lot of respect for what they do. At the end of the day, I got to execute. I feel confident in my stuff and confident in my preparation and routine, but they took advantage of hitters’ counts and that’s what good teams are gonna do."
In his second start, Scott finished with a career-high eight strikeouts, adding to his six from his debut, and produced another 15 whiffs.
But the Braves picked up steam in the third inning when the Met' 24-year-old was not as lucky after issuing a leadoff single to Michael Harris II. Scott fell behind 2-0 to Orlando Arcia, who turned on an inside fastball in the next pitch and deposited it for a two-run home run inside the left-field foul pole.
"I thought I made some mistakes in hitter’s counts," Scott said. "I thought especially out of the stretch, got behind a couple of at-bats there, especially to Harris and Arcia. I threw a 2-0 fastball to Arcia right where I wanted it, but good hitters are going to do that when they’re in hitter’s counts."
In the next inning, Scott could not put away Austin Riley after two straight strikes. He threw four balls out of the zone then gave up back-to-back singles to Travis d'Arnaud and Harris as the Braves grew their lead to 3-0.
But as Scott has proven, he was unbothered by the Braves' trio of runs.
He tossed back-to-back perfect innings in the fifth and sixth frames, including back-to-back strikeouts of Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna in the top of the sixth.
After Scott exited in the seventh, Sean Reid-Foley was able to get a trio of ground balls, including an inning-ending double play, to work through a Francisco Lindor error unscathed.
"I don’t think there’s really any nerves," Scott said. "It was more I felt locked in, felt ready to compete. Obviously, I love getting the ball in these situations. Any time I can get the ball in a situation like that against these guys, I’m going to take every chance I get."
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY Mets: Christian Scott works past tough innings for quality start
