Friday, 24 August 2012

Collin McHugh’s great start a bright spot in Mets’ dismal second half

The New York Mets season has reached its point where fans will have to enjoy life's simple things like promising starts from pitchers who could form the future rotation.

Matt Harvey has already providing a lot of that hope lately — recording a 2.75 ERA and 43 strikeouts over 36 innings in his first six starts — but fellow righthander Collin McHugh joined the act Thursday night.

Though the Mets fell to the Colorado Rockies 1-0, McHugh was excellent in his major league debut, striking out nine batters over seven scoreless innings while only allowing two hits and one walk. According to Elias, McHugh is only the fifth pitcher since 1900 to post those numbers in his first career start.

Is it enough to make Mets fans forget the loss allowed Colorado to leave town with a four-game sweep or that New York's record since the All-Star break stands at 11-28? Maybe not.

But again, that mediocre play has forced the fans who are still paying attention to find the good in all that bad. And McHugh rates as a good story to follow until September's end. The 25-year-old runs a well-written blog that has chronicled his minor-league travails and so it's nice to see him come up to the major leagues and experience some success — even if all he has to show for it is a hard-luck no-decision.

McHugh also has a pretty good Twitter account and he took to it on Thursday night to lament that he wasn't able to contribute at the plate like Harvey, who has gone 5-for-11 with two RBI since being called up to the majors.

For as well as today went on the hill, my swing was egregious. I've got some work to do for sure. Wonder if @MattHarvey33 is giving lessons?

With the way that the Mets offense has been swinging, Harvey might be as good of a source for batting advice as any.

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