After ‘pretty wild’ car accident, Mets’ Joey Lucchesi closes his season with win
Joey Lucchesi earned his fourth win on the season and lowered his ERA to 2.89 on the season with his third quality start in the Mets' 11-2 win over the Miami Marlins in Game 1 of Wednesday's doubleheader, and he did so the day after being in a minor car accident.
“You know I got a call last night from our trainer that his ride home yesterday his Uber driver got in a little fender-bender,” manager Buck Showalter said almost matter-of-factly in his short news conference before the start of Game 2 on Wednesday. “He woke up a little stiff today… that was a little bit of a concern coming into today but felt good, felt fine.”
Lucchesi said he was a little sore in his back after the accident, but he is alright and “didn’t wanna miss my last start” because of that minor discomfort.
“It was over here on Roosevelt, like five minutes after getting into my Uber with my parents and my brother to go back to my hotel,” he said of the accident in which a car that was being chased by police crashed into the car they were traveling in and “totally messed up the Uber’s left side, I was on the right side, thankfully. It wasn’t too drastic of a crash.”
“It was pretty wild, lot of adrenaline, out of nowhere,” he added.
Thankfully for the Lucchesi family, there were no serious injuries and fellow Mets pitcher Tylor Megill was there and transported them to the hotel. The Uber was undrivable and the assailant was soon after apprehended by the authorities, the pitcher said.
Lucchesi’s mother, Michelle, posted her account of the accident on social media Wednesday, writing, “We are fine but definitely crazy and wild felt like we were in a movie.. I was definitely shook up what a way for us to spend the last 24 hours in NY .. but thankful to Tylor for coming to our rescue! But after today’s game so darn proud of this Kid for ending his season strong!”
And once the 30-year-old got on the mound things went well in his ninth start of the season coming back from Tommy John surgery, scattering five hits and two walks in six scoreless innings before he was chased by back-to-back doubles to start the seventh representing the two runs he was charged with on the evening.
“I was pretty happy with it. Overall, I’m pretty happy with my outing, I wish I had… I had a good thing going, threw up a lot of zeros, was trying to end it with one more zero, but, just left the ball up,” Lucchesi said. “Wish I coulda finished with seven shutty, but I feel like I did my job. Happy with the result.”
His final line: six innings (plus two batters), seven hits, two runs, two walks, three strikeouts on 91 pitches (56 strikes). He added nine whiffs and 18 called strikes on the night.
The Southpaw ended the season strong. In three September starts, after coming back to the big league club for good, he allowed just six runs (four earned) on 18 hits with seven walks and 10 strikeouts over 18.2 innings.
“We’re proud of him,” Showalter said. “From where he’s come from, a lot of different challenges. Joey left a good memory [in] his last start.”
Lucchesi said he felt like had something to prove this season “to the world, to myself, and I wanted to show people I still belong here. And I feel like I made that case.”
Headed into the offseason, the lefty said he is going to work on developing another pitch to add versatility to his game and feels like he is going to come back “stronger and better.”
