Mets put only two runners on base in loss to Padres; Paul Blackburn exits after being hit in pitching hand by line drive
Paul Blackburn of the Mets reacts after being hit by a batted ball during the third inning against the Padres at Petco Park on Friday in San Diego. Credit: Getty Images/Orlando Ramirez
SAN DIEGO — With his legs extended and his butt planted in the dirt at the foot of the mound, Paul Blackburn needed a moment.
The Mets’ starting pitcher had just faced a pitcher’s worst nightmare: a line drive right back at him. The Padres’ David Peralta cracked a 100-mph shot that caught the righthander on his pitching hand, which he instinctively threw up as he ducked, then fell. Blackburn looked around and looked lost, facing a sudden and painful end to what already had been a poor outing Friday night.
A quick examination on the field yielded the obvious conclusion: He exited immediately. The Mets eventually lost, 7-0, after putting only two runners on base.
The Mets announced that Blackburn was diagnosed with a bruise and will undergo additional testing Saturday. X-rays were inconclusive, manager Carlos Mendoza said, hence the need for a CT scan.
“A lot of times, you don’t see those,” Blackburn said of the baseball fired at his face. “I actually saw it — I saw it the whole way. I went into defense mode. I’m just glad it didn’t hit me in my head, honestly. I went into defense mode there and was able to deflect it.”
Mendoza said: “Pretty scary. A line drive right at his head, his face. And it got him pretty good.”
The ball caught him on the outside of his hand, below the pinkie and near the wrist, Blackburn said.
“It doesn’t feel great,” he said. “It’s definitely swollen, definitely some pain in there. But I have full mobility of my wrist and my hand.”
If Blackburn needs to go on the injured list, Tylor Megill is the most obvious replacement. He was scheduled to start Saturday for Triple-A Syracuse; if they wanted to, the Mets could call him up instead, using him to shore up a shorthanded bullpen until they need to slot him into the rotation (which they wouldn’t necessarily need to do until next Saturday).
The Mets (67-62) sent Megill to the minors after adding Blackburn. In three starts since, he has a 5.40 ERA and 1.26 WHIP. In his most recent outing, he struck out 11 (and allowed four runs and eight hits) in 7 2⁄3 innings.
Blackburn, acquired by the Mets at the trade deadline last month, finished with the worst line in his five turns with his new team: 2 1⁄3 innings, 10 hits, five runs.
Trouble began immediately, with Luis Arraez leading off the bottom of the first with a home run. Former Yankee Kyle Higashioka added a two-run shot in the second. Seven of the first 10 batters recorded hits for the Padres (73-57).
“The good pitches I made got hit. The bad pitches I made got hit,” Blackburn said. “It was one of those days where I was searching for anything to create some swing and miss or anything like that . . . All in all, not good.”
San Diego righthander Joe Musgrove — perhaps best known in New York as the pitcher whose ears Buck Showalter asked the umpires to check on the night the Mets’ season ended in the 2022 playoffs — dominated the Mets again. He was perfect into the fifth inning and gave up one run and struck out nine in seven innings.
Starling Marte doubled for the Mets’ first hit. Their only other baserunner was Francisco Lindor, who doubled in the ninth. Musgrove and two relievers struck out 14.
The Mets dropped to 2 1⁄2 games behind Atlanta for the last National League wild-card spot.
“Every pitch, the movement,” Mendoza said of Musgrove. “He was on today.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
