Come the seventh inning of their blowout loss to Atlanta, what was a rough night for the Mets' pitching staff got extra Ruf.
Yes, pun intended, because after Carlos Carrasco left following the second inning and three Mets relievers were shelled for nine runs over the next four frames, Darin Ruf entered the game on the mound to try to finish out the game and save the rest of the bullpen.
And in just 14 pitches, Ruf made history: he held the Braves to one hit over two frames, and became the first position player in Mets history to pitch two scoreless innings in a game.
Somewhat ignominious history, but Ruf was glad to do what he could to save the rest of the Mets' staff for the three more important games in Atlanta.
"That's the reason position players throw: to keep the guys that we need the rest of the series and the rest of this road trip fresh and healthy," Ruf said. "It's becoming more of a role sometimes for a bench player to come in and eat up some of those innings if they have to."
It nearly wasn't history, as one of the three fly balls to the warning track allowed by Ruf was a near oppo taco from Matt Olson – whose attempt at a dinger was caught at the left field wall by Mark Canha – but to be fair, that came on a 59 MPH "heater" that looped into Olson's wheelhouse.
Ruf joked that the key to shutting down the Braves was "throw 55 to 60 MPH," but in reality, his mission was simple.
"It doesn't matter who is hitting, you just try to throw strikes and get the guys off the field as quickly as possible," he said.
Ruf's top velo of the night was 64 MPH, and that's intentional: this was Ruf's second career MLB outing on the mound, and after his first one – an inning where he allowed two runs on three hits for the Giants in 2021 – he learned that he's not out there to blow heaters (even BP ones) by hitters.
"Last time, I threw too hard and was throwing sinkers, so tonight I tried to throw slower and went to the cutter," he laughed, and when noted that his pitches registered as sliders, he said that "you practice them when you play catch sometimes, so that's all I was trying to do."
Still, an effective outing for a guy who, as of mid-game, was prepared to maybe enter the game as a pinch-hitter somewhere before being asked in the sixth inning by manager Buck Showalter if his right arm was ready to roll.
"I just went in and got a shoulder stretch, and made sure I was ready to go."
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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