Mets pull Christian Scott early, fail to complete sweep of Rockies

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on May 7, 2026

Published in Baseball

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DENVER — Max Scherzer once likened pitching at Coors Field to playing baseball “on the moon.” The thin mountain air has a way of eliminating the movement on pitches, and naturally, it can be a source of frustration for young pitchers. Christian Scott isn’t one of those pitchers. Few things rattle the 26-year-old right-hander, not even a one-run lead in quite possibly the toughest ballpark for pitchers in the league.

Still, the Mets decided not to chance it when he gave up a run to the Colorado Rockies in the fourth inning Thursday afternoon, cutting their lead in half. Though he got out of the inning with a strikeout and then struck out the next two to start the fifth inning, ultimately, he wasn’t allowed to face the order a third time through.

The Rockies tied the game in the bottom of the sixth with a run off right-hander Huascar Brazobán, and right-hander Craig Kimbrel (0-2) gave up a grand slam to Jake McCarthy before even getting an out in the eighth inning. The Rockies won, 6-2, putting an end to the Mets’ winning streak.

McCarthy teed off on a 94.5-mph fastball, sending it 448 feet into the right-field stands. It just barely stayed fair, confirmed after a review.

“I was hoping it was foul,” Kimbrel said.

So were Mets fans from Colorado to Queens. The home run was automatically reviewed, but there was no definitive angle showing the ball going to the right of the foul pole.

“It was close, especially from our angle,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I couldn’t tell. Whatever they called on the field, I was pretty sure it was going to stand.”

The Mets (14-23) are short on high-leverage relievers with three long relievers in the bullpen. Kimbrel has been tasked with holding leads or keeping games close late when setup man Luke Weaver isn’t available, and he wasn’t Thursday afternoon. Wednesday night, the Mets used the few high-leverage arms they have to protect leads of eight runs, then six runs, then five.

Tobias Myers, one of those three long relievers, couldn’t make it through the fourth inning, giving up four runs and forcing the Mets to bring in left-hander Brooks Raley. Then they used Weaver, and the left-hander Sean Manaea, who gave up another run, which was enough to prompt the Mets to bring in closer Devin Williams.

“It’s part of it because we had to use a lot of our guys, and obviously, some of them weren’t available today,” Mendoza said. “We got the win yesterday. I’m not gonna blame that on them. Obviously, we had chances today and we couldn’t add on there.”

One day after an offensive outburst in cold weather, the sun came out in Denver, but the Mets’ bats cooled considerably. They scored twice in the second inning against left-hander Jose Quintana, but couldn’t drive in runners on first and third in the third, and left runners on base in the fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth innings. The Mets emptied their bench trying to make something happen offensively to no avail.

In the ninth, they had two on with none out, before right-hander Antonio Senzatela (2-0) retired the next three in order, preserving the win for Colorado (15-23).

The Mets went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position, leaving seven runners on base.

Quintana, who pitched for the Mets in 2023 and 2024, held them to two earned runs on five hits, walked two and struck out two.

“We expanded [the strike zone],” Mendoza said. “With Q, this is a guy that’s going to nibble, nibble, nibble, and when we were ahead in counts, we chased. He got the ground ball when he needed to.”

Scott was pulled after walking leadoff hitter Eduard Julien on four pitches with two outs in the fifth. He had thrown only 82 pitches, giving up one run on three hits, walking two and striking out six. The Mets often play it conservative with their young starters, especially with one like Scott, who sat out last season to rehab from 2024 Tommy John surgery.

Mendoza confirmed this was the case in Scott’s third major league start of the season.

“Given where he’s been the past couple of weeks, coming back from a whole year after missing [the season], we had a number of pitches in mind, and he pretty much went over that number of pitches,” Mendoza said. “So he did his part; we just couldn’t close it out.”

Scott didn’t protest the decision.

“That’s not for me to decide,” he said. “I feel like, whenever I get the ball, I’m going to go out there and compete. Whatever Mendy thinks is going to give the team the best chance to win the game that day, I’m all for it. Obviously, I would have liked not to have had a four-pitch walk to get the trigger pulled, but yeah, I feel like I did a good job in the zone for the most part.

“I respect the decision for sure.”

With this bullpen, the Mets may want to reconsider their approach.