Mets' Christian Scott felt 'super comfortable' in debut, reflects on 'awesome' first start

You can’t ask for a better first day on the job than what Christian Scott did in his MLB debut for the Mets on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

After shaking off some first-inning nerves, perhaps, when he allowed three straight hits and a run to start the bottom of the first, Scott dialed back in and immediately followed by striking out Randy Arozarena for the first out and first strikeout of his big-league career. A double play off the bat of Harold Ramirez then got the young right-hander out of the first-and-third jam with just one run allowed.

It would be the only run Scott would give up on the night.

“I thought I made good pitches on those [first-inning] at-bats, but [they] just didn’t land my way and that’s gonna happen a lot during the season and when something doesn’t go your way it was a big moment for me to be able to go out there and get a ground ball,” Scott said after the game.

The 24-year-old followed up the first inning where he threw 19 pitches with a 1-2-3 second inning on just eight pitches which included a strikeout. From there he was off and running, retiring 12 in a row – looking poised and confident while also working swiftly and efficiently – before a single with one out in the fifth inning broke up the streak.

Scott did a great job of mixing in his four-pitch arsenal from the start and quickly made an adjustment on the Rays hitters (who jumped him early in the game by pouncing on his aggressiveness in the strike zone) and got them to chase on his offspeed pitches more and more as the game went along.

In fact, Scott got 18 swings and misses from Tampa Bay on Saturday night which is the most whiffs generated by a Mets pitcher this season.

“Really good, really good. Pretty impressive by him, especially after the first three hitters of the game are aggressive on his fastball,” said manager Carlos Mendoza after the Mets’ 3-1 loss. “It was one of those where he continued to make pitches and this is what we’ve seen out of him even in Triple-A.

“The body language, his ability to continue to make pitches when he needs to and he was tested right away. And then the adjustment he made after they were aggressive early in counts with his fastball and he started using that sweeper and they started chasing, it was pretty impressive and a really good outing overall for him.”

Cruising through six innings and having thrown just 80 pitches, Mendoza rewarded his pitcher and let Scott go back out for the seventh inning – and for good reason. The right-hander returned the favor by retiring the first two batters of the inning, but on his 94th pitch of the night Ben Rortvedt smacked a 1-2 fastball into center field to end Scott’s outing.

The Florida native, in front of his family and friends, finished his debut with a standing ovation from the large crowd of Mets fans in attendance as he walked off the field after going 6.2 innings and allowing one earned run on five hits, one walk and striking out six.

“It’s been awesome, I have a lot of family here, just go out, pound the strike zone,” Scott said about his performance. “[Tomas] Nido called a fantastic game, defense played great behind me so it was exciting to keep the team in it while I was out there.”

He continued: “I was super comfortable out there, really trusted my stuff, pounded the strike zone – exactly what I wanted to do. I was able to throw a lot of changeups to righties today which was huge, get them off my heater and my sweeper and then just cruised after that.”

The length New York was able to get from the rookie was equally necessary as it was impressive as the Mets, who haven’t gotten much length out of their starting rotation so far this season, were coming off Jose Quintana’s start on Friday where he went 2.2 innings as well as Thursday’s extra-inning walk-off that required six pitchers.

In relief of Scott, Reed Garrett came in and struck out the only batter he faced to help out not only the starting pitcher, but the team who was locked in a 1-1 pitcher’s duel. Unfortunately, the Mets lost after the Rays scored two runs in the eighth inning due to two bases loaded walks.

“We’ve been talking about length from our starters and a day today where our starter goes down yesterday, we use the bullpen – a few guys we’ve been running pretty hard – and for [Scott] to go 6.2 [innings] and the way he did it, pretty special,” Mendoza said. “Our rotation is gonna be fine.”

After the game, Mendoza also confirmed that Scott will make his next scheduled start for New York. How could he not after Saturday’s performance?

Asked if he was nervous at all before his debut, Scott said “honestly, no” because he knows his “stuff plays here.”

“A lot of people told me I would have trouble sleeping [the night before] and I slept like a baby,” he said. “I’m confident in my stuff, confident in my work preparation, routine so just go out there and attack hitters and see what happens.”