Chris Bassitt’s first foray with the Mets in a high-profile game went badly, but he would like to think he learned from the experience.
The right-hander cratered last Sunday in Atlanta, allowing four earned runs over 2 ²/₃ innings (which included three walks and a hit batsman) as part of a three-game sweep by the Braves that helped lose the NL East for the Mets. The magnitude of the moment may have strangled Bassitt.
“Looking at it, I tried a little too hard in that game,” Bassitt said Saturday before the Mets beat the Padres 7-3 in Game 2 of the wild-card series at Citi Field. “Instead of kind of pitching my game, being myself, I felt like I was overthrowing at times, not attacking the zone, not being in the zone, walking too many guys.”
It was a lesson learned as Bassitt prepared for an assignment in a winner-take-all third game. The winner will face the Dodgers in the NLDS beginning Tuesday.
Bassitt, who arrived in a trade with Oakland during spring training, emerged as a valuable piece of the Mets rotation this season, going 15-9 with a 3.42 ERA in 30 starts.
He would like to think he’s handled the pressure that comes with playing for a New York team.
“When I got traded over here it was like, ‘OK, here we go,’ ” Bassitt said. “The reason I say that, there isn’t a harder city in our country to play a sport. New York is an absolute gauntlet every night.
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“I kind of thought I was mentally tough enough to handle New York, but I am very grateful to be playing for a team like the Mets, just because I have kind of proven to myself, ‘OK, you can handle it. You can handle the scrutiny. You can handle the boos. You can handle all that stuff.’ … I’m thankful for that. Mentally, it’s toughened me up a lot, handling stuff.”
Bassitt said the differences between Oakland and New York are “night and day” in terms of the pressure.
“I’ve learned, especially this year,” he said, “where there’s sometimes negativity and stuff like that throughout … we lose two or three games and, ‘Holy crap, the world is burning down.’ ”
Manager Buck Showalter was prepared to pitch Bassitt on Saturday if the Mets won Game 1. But with his team facing elimination, Showalter entrusted the Game 2 start to Jacob deGrom, who gave up two runs in six innings, leaving Bassitt on standby.
On Friday, Max Scherzer delivered a clunker, allowing four homers and seven runs to put the Mets’ season in jeopardy.
Bassitt, who can head to free agency after the season, didn’t want to focus on the possibility of pitching his final game for the Mets if he hadn’t already.
“This group is very special to me, I like it a lot,” he said. “But I’m not focused even one bit on free agency. I really haven’t put a ton of thought in it just because so much of that is out of my control. No matter what team I love or want to go to, they have got to mutually do the same. We haven’t thought or worried one bit about free agency.”
