The fine pitching details behind why the Mets are better equipped to hang with the Dodgers

New York Times

2 days ago

LOS ANGELES — Inside the New York Mets dugout Tuesday night, Griffin Canning studied how Tylor Megill pitched to Shohei Ohtani in the middle of a close game. Canning watched Megill throw four consecutive sliders out of the zone before spotting a changeup on the edge for a swinging strikeout. At a key point in the Mets' 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night, Canning applied what he had learned.
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With a runner on first base with two outs in the fifth inning and the Mets holding a 3-0 lead, Canning started a matchup against Ohtani with five consecutive sliders. Then, with the count full, Canning unleashed a changeup. Ohtani stared at it for a called third strike.
'That was the best pitch to call there,' catcher Luis Torrens said. 'It's a different view.'
The way Canning ended that at-bat against Ohtani — and, really, his entire outing of six scoreless innings — epitomized why the Mets are better equipped this season to hang with the Dodgers, the team that eliminated them last October in the National League Championship Series.
Yes, Juan Soto's presence significantly improves the Mets' lineup and that's a major help.
But a handful of finer reasons are also responsible for the Mets' ability to take four of the first six regular season games against the Dodgers this season with one matchup left. They all involve New York's pitching staff. And compared to last year, they are all new developments.
The Mets value precision. In carrying out prep work to the mound, the Mets' pitchers are doing a better job of sticking to the idea of something like: We want to do this with these pitches in these areas against this hitter, and from there, whatever happens, happens. That's a small shift from the past.
Under pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, the Mets always placed an emphasis on trusting strengths. Since spring training, however, there is a heightened intentionality to this idea.
With Ohtani, the Mets know they have to mix things up.
Before the fifth-inning encounter, Canning didn't show Ohtani a single slider in two prior plate appearances. In Ohtani's second at-bat against Canning, he hit a first-pitch fastball that was out of the strike zone for a single with an exit velocity of 106.9 mph. He was not going to get another fastball in a big spot.
'They're really not throwing fastballs in the hitting zone,' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. 'If something is in the strike zone, it's spin or changeup, and they're changing a lot of locations, they're going in, crowding him, going away, they're just not repeating a lot.'
They're following a plan.
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That's why it was so strange to see deviation during the Mets' loss on Tuesday night. In the ninth inning, Huascar Brazobán threw Max Muncy a 1-2 fastball down the middle. The situation called for a changeup, Brazobán's best pitch.
Brazobán and catcher Francisco Alvarez went with the fastball because they believed Muncy was sitting on a changeup.
'That's 100-percent on me,' Alvarez said.
The Mets want Brazobán to throw his changeup a lot. Even when the batterymates think someone is sitting on the changeup, they still want Brazobán to throw it.
Why?
It's what he does best, so they want him to lean into it as much as possible.
In spring training, the Mets' front office instructed their catchers to cut down on movement behind the plate. For example, no coming up out of the squat for high pitches or moving over for pitches inside. Instead, they wanted their catchers to set up directly behind the plate.
While they were in Milwaukee, president of baseball operations David Stearns and vice president Eduardo Brizuela had the Brewers work this way, too. The way some executives see it, positioning catchers up the middle provides a better tunnel for pitchers. Some pitchers say it gives a better visual for command purposes.
'We started doing that early in the season, and we're getting really good results,' Torrens said.
This is a small thing. But four of the six games so far this season between the two teams have been decided by one or two runs. The small details matter. And that's especially true when it comes to the Mets' pitching staff and command. In the six games during the National League Championship series last year, the Mets walked 42 batters. In the six games against the Dodgers so far in the regular season, the Mets have walked 22 batters.
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Still, catchers can only provide the target; it's up to the pitcher to remain confident and execute.
The numbers don't exactly bear this out. The Mets are actually throwing fewer strikes than last year (49.8 percent in 2025 compared to 50.1 percent in 2024). But club officials say that they see their pitchers attacking more in the strike zone when it matters most.
When explaining success so far against some of the Dodgers' batters, particularly compared to last year, those same club officials point to pitchers challenging more with strikes.
In Canning's showdown against Ohtani in the fifth inning on Wednesday, the right-hander threw a strike without using a fastball.
'I didn't want to give in,' Canning said.
He didn't have to.
Canning shut 'em down 🔥 #LGM pic.twitter.com/jQmWKNxOxG
— New York Mets (@Mets) June 5, 2025
The Mets entered Wednesday throwing the Dodgers a fastball 48.5 percent of the time. Only the Miami Marlins (44.3 percent) have thrown the Dodgers fewer fastballs. The Dodgers see fastballs 52.6 percent of the time. The Dodgers feast on fastballs. They're not getting many from the Mets, particularly not early in counts.
For the Mets, it's working.
One of the best examples is late-inning reliever Reed Garrett, who is using his four-seam fastball only sparingly compared to last season. With two runners on and none out in the eighth inning on Tuesday, Garrett relied on his sweeper and splitter to retire Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández and Will Smith without allowing a run. In the NLCS, Garrett appeared in four games and allowed five runs. In three games so far against the Dodgers this season, Garrett has six strikeouts and two walks without allowing a run.
More samplings of numbers changing:
Ohtani in the NLCS: 8-for-22, 2 home runs, 9 walks, 7 strikeouts
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Ohtani vs. the Mets in 2025: 5-for-24, 2 home runs, 3 walks, 10 strikeouts
Mookie Betts in the NLCS: 9-for-26, 2 home runs, 5 walks, 5 strikeouts
Betts vs. the Mets in 2025: 4-for-22, 0 home runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
Tommy Edman in the NLCS: 9-for-22, 0 home runs, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts
Edman vs. the Mets in 2025: 2-for-17. 0 home runs, 1 walks, 5 strikeouts
'They've pitched us really well,' Roberts said. 'The execution, sequencing, we're kind of one step behind as far as anticipating what they're going to do, and then when we do get opportunities with mistakes in the hitting zone, we're not cashing in. I don't know the answer, but I do know you have to give those guys credit for pitching us well.'
Mets officials will likely say that they did not build their team specifically to beat the Dodgers. And that they just wanted to construct a better team than last year. The new developments shining through against the Dodgers should help the Mets against all teams. The thing is, improvement means being able to handle the Dodgers.
The Mets' brass also would likely say they felt they could hang with the Dodgers last season, too. Last October, the Mets' pitching staff entered the NLCS on fumes after barely making the postseason. Also, they were coming off a series win over the Philadelphia Phillies, an uber-aggressive team and the opposite of the patient Dodgers. For the Mets, the results just weren't there, even dating back to last year's regular-season matchups.
Come this October, both clubs' rosters will likely look at least somewhat different than they do now because of health and the upcoming trade deadline. The Mets, however, are demonstrating that they're on the defending champion's level.
(Top photo of Mets pitcher Griffin Canning: Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images)