A lot has changed for Joey Lucchesi in the last two weeks, but if you ask the Mets lefty, the changes won’t be found on the mound.
Despite a drastic turnaround in his last three outings, which continued with a strong start against the Padres on Friday night, Lucchesi doesn’t allude to many major tweaks in his approach, rather a simplification than an overhaul.
“I’ve been working really hard in between my starts,” Lucchesi said. “I changed my mental aspect of the game. My numbers were really bad and it’s hard to ignore that. Some people get caught in that. But I just tell myself to focus on this game, one at a time, just super-simplifying everything. Each pitch is a new pitch, and reset. I think it’s helping a lot. In between starts I’m just learning and getting better.”
In his last three starts, Lucchesi has allowed just two earned runs over 12.1 innings with 13 strikeouts. Eight of them came in four innings of work against the Marlins on May 22, and in two of his last three outings, Lucchesi hasn’t issued a walk. After facing the lowly Marlins and Rockies in his last two starts, Friday’s outing was a good barometer to see if his improvements were for real.
Lucchesi responded with one run over 4.2 innings to keep the Mets in the game, though the offense couldn’t figure out Blake Snell.
“That’s a good lineup,” Lucchesi said. “Just knowing I kept it to one run as long as I could, it felt good.”
It was hard to find anything to feel good about over Lucchesi’s first six appearances, when he was pitching to a 9.19 ERA and seemingly hit bottom against the Rays on May 15, when he was tagged for four runs in 1.2 innings of work. But manager Luis Rojas said after that rough start that he would continue to turn to Lucchesi, and it’s paid off in recent weeks.
“Each good outing makes me feel that much better,” Lucchesi said. “I’d say it makes me feel good and builds my confidence.”
With Carlos Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard both far off from returning to the rotation, Lucchesi will likely continue to see starts in the near future and show off his newfound production, although it didn’t stem from a drastically altered approach or delivery on the rubber.
“Just minimized and simplified everything,” Lucchesi said. “My teammates and coaches told me I was just doing too much…I’m not changed, I just subtracted some stuff. I’m still doing the same stuff…I feel like I’m heading where I need to be.”
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