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Tylor Megill, with apologies to Frank Sinatra, was riding high in April, shot down in May.
The Mets right-hander had struggled in his two starts before Friday and then proceeded to turn in his shortest and sloppiest outing of the season.
Megill’s biggest sin wasn’t the contact he allowed — he sustained bad luck in that regard — but it was difficult to excuse his lack of control in the Mets’ 6-2 loss to the Yankees in the Bronx.
Overall, he surrendered four earned runs on four hits and five walks over 2 ²/₃ innings. Megill was knocked out in the third after the Yankees sent nine batters to the plate in the inning and placed the Mets in a 4-0 hole.
“He didn’t throw enough strikes,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “And when you are doing that against an offense like these guys, they are going to make you pay.”
Megill pitched to a 1.74 ERA in his six starts in March/April. In each of his three starts since, he’s allowed four earned runs, pitching five innings or fewer, for an 8.76 ERA over that stretch.
“I’m just putting myself in bad situations and falling behind,” Megill said.
Jorbit Vivas began Megill’s downfall on this night with a solid single to right field leading off the third inning. After Aaron Judge drew a one-out walk, Megill received a healthy dose of tough luck: Cody Bellinger hit a slow grounder to third and beat Mark Vientos’ throw, loading the bases.
Paul Goldschmidt followed with a broken-bat grounder that Francisco Lindor gloved behind second base. Lindor’s throw to first bounced off Pete Alonso’s glove, allowing a second run to score on the play.
But Megill was about to start creating his own problems. Jason Domínguez walked before Anthony Volpe’s sacrifice fly extended the deficit to 3-0. Austin Wells and Oswald Peraza drew walks in succession — forcing in another run and ending Megill’s night.
“Four walks in an inning, that’s just not going to cut it,” Megill said.
Griffin Canning and David Peterson, the scheduled Mets starters over the next two games, can only hope for better results.
Kodai Senga, who has reemerged as the Mets ace this season, won’t get to pitch in the series. Clay Holmes, a former Yankee, started Wednesday against the Pirates, just missing a chance to pitch in Yankee Stadium for his new team.
“We feel good about the five guys we have got in our rotation,” Mendoza said this week when asked about his decision not to reconfigure the pitching alignment ahead of the Subway Series. “It just happened to line up that way and we went with it.”