Mets' Joey Lucchesi Has Earned a Shot to Go Deeper in Games

New York Mets pitcher Joey Lucchesi has been on a roll lately, and has earned a shot to go deeper in games. Had manager Luis Rojas allowed him to do so on Sunday, the Mets may have come away with a sweep of the Padres.

Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Although the bullpen spoiled his latest impressive performance, Mets left-hander Joey Lucchesi has been on a roll lately. 

Facing his former team for the second time in nine days, Lucchesi tossed his best outing of the season against the Padres on Sunday, going five innings (season-high), allowing one run on four hits, and striking out six batters.

Despite operating with a shorthanded bullpen, manager Luis Rojas opted to pull Lucchesi at 72 pitches in favor of a pinch hitter after the Mets gave him a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth.

According to Rojas, the thought process behind this decision was to tack on as many insurance runs, as possible. However, the plan ultimately backfired as it forced Rojas to push Jeurys Familia through 41 pitches across two innings on a day, where he clearly didn't have his best stuff.

As a result, the Mets wasted a stellar outing by Lucchesi, who received a no-decision in the series finale loss with the Padres.

Following the game, Lucchesi admittedly felt that he has earned a shot to face opposing lineups for the third time through the order. 

And had Rojas allowed him to do so on Sunday when he was cruising, the Mets may have been able to limit the exposure of their short handed bullpen.

Instead, Familia and Jacob Barnes unraveled to allow six runs in the seventh inning, and the Mets failed to complete the sweep.

When asked about letting Lucchesi go deeper in his starts moving forward, Rojas didn't rule it out.

"It could happen," Rojas said, "We have to take that into consideration (moving forward)."

In his last four outings, Lucchesi has allowed three runs and struck out 19 batters in his last 17.1 innings. He has added a changeup to his repertoire and his command has been sharp.

He currently holds a 1.86 ERA since the start of June and is trending in the right direction for a Mets pitching staff that ranks second in MLB with a 3.09 ERA.

The southpaw also credited his preparation in between starts as the key to his recent success. Lucchesi has had a smoother recovery process by sticking to his routine in order to be ready to go out and perform in each outing.

With Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman and Taijuan Walker landing in the MLB's Top 10 leaderboard for ERA, Lucchesi is starting to fall in line, and he deserves a chance to go deeper into games in the future.