Following their 10-7 beatdown at the hands of the San Francisco Giants Thursday, the Mets announced that left-hander Steven Matz will miss his scheduled start Friday due to shoulder discomfort.
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With the Mets clawing to stay in the wild-card race, rookie Seth Lugo will take the mound in place of Matz, who is holding out hope that skipping one turn through the rotation will be enough to quell his shoulder issue. “There is still some discomfort in there, so we chose to take it day by day”.
Matz likely won’t be examined until Monday in NY.
Matz said he felt fine after his last start on Sunday, but while throwing a curveball from flat ground on Tuesday when he “felt a twinge” that has lingered.
Matz called the injury “discomfort” and said he is not concerned about it being a long-term issue, which means he could potentially avoid a stint on the disabled list. “I’m definitely not happy about it”. “The next day I was throwing and I was still feeling it, so I didn’t throw my bullpen, hoping it would get better”.
According to Collins, pitching coach Dan Warthen sees no evidence that Matz adjusted his mechanics to compensate for elbow pain, which would be one theory why his shoulder may be hurting. “My elbow was feeling good and I felt I got myself into a good routine and this may set me back a little bit routine wise”. In 14 starts with Triple-A Las Vegas, Lugo held a 6.93 ERA this season with a.332 batting average against and a 1.70 WHIP.
“It happened again today”, Terry Collins said. A pair of shutouts (the wins) helped to lower his ERA.
“I am not too, too anxious about it”, Matz added. “But you’ve got to do what’s right and what’s right is to make sure this kid down the road is going to be healthy”.
“It’s definitely frustrating”, Matz said.
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Collins said the Mets are confident in data from the Trackman system used at Citi Field, which has detected no mechanical changes, a positive sign in the long term. “Hopefully it’s just one start and just keep going forward”.
