Since taking over from athletics early in spring training, Chris Bassitt has been everything the Mets envisioned, maybe more.
In his first career start at Citi Field, the 2021 All-Star continued to shine in a winning rotation without injured ace Jacob deGrom. Bassitt choked the Diamondbacks over six airy innings of a one-run ball in Friday’s Mets 10-3 win in their home opener.
Bassitt allowed a run to two hits, with two walks and six strikeouts over 98 pitches, a start after throwing six shutout innings on his team debut last Saturday in Washington.
“Yeah, it’s great,” Bassitt said. “There are many more obstacles to overcome. But you always want to win first.”
Much like Yankees ace Gerrit Cole’s complaints about brief delays at their home game in the Bronx last week, 33-year-old Bassitt (2-0, 0.75 ERA) mentioned the pre-game celebrations that knocked him out slightly in the first inning thrown off the track.
“The timing is never right. You should start at 1:10 and that never happens,” he said. “So it’s more about how you assess everything? But it is what it is and you know it’s going in.”
Chris Bassitt NY Contribution: Karl Wenzelberg
Mets manager Buck Showalter believed Bassitt may have also looked “too strong” at the start, perhaps due to an extra rest day between starts. But after a one-out double from Ketel Marte and a subsequent walk to David Peralta in the opening frame, Bassitt beat cleanup slugger Christian Walker before pulling Pavin Smith back with a pop-up to quell the threat.
Bassitt, who finished last season with a 12-4 mark and a 3.15 ERA over 27 starts for the A, didn’t allow another hit until Daulton Varsho homed the sixth-place right. The Ohio native walked out of the inning to a standing ovation from fans behind the Mets dugout.
“I try to block it out no matter what. I feel like the emotions of everything that you’re basically just trying to stay balanced,” Bassitt said of the crowd’s reaction. “I’m trying to make it a normal day and not make the moment bigger than it should be.”
With Carlos Carrasco set to take the field on Saturday, the Mets’ starting team — also featuring imported future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer — boasts a league-high 1.32 ERA from a 6-2 start, with deGrom the season opened due to a shoulder on the injury list issue.