Adam Ottavino had another regular night at the park on Wednesday night, pitching a scoreless eighth inning, striking out a pair — and allowing a stolen base.
It was his ninth consecutive scoreless — and hitless — appearance and continued an eye-popping first month of the season for the right-hander, who entered the game with 15.2 strikeouts per nine innings, a miniscule 0.416 WHIP and a drastic reduction in walks compared with most of his career.
And since giving up runs in his first two appearances of the season, he’s gone 34 straight batters without allowing a hit — although his latest outing came in a 1-0 loss to the Cubs.
The 38-year-old was coming off a decent, but unspectacular year, in 2023 and although he opted out of his contract with the Mets, he ended up signing back in Queens for less money than he would have gotten had he just kept the original deal.
Ottavino said he knows he’s not going to “wow anyone” with his stuff at this point in his career, but he felt there was still more he could do, especially after a rough couple of months in the middle of last season.
“A couple things spooked me last year,” Ottavino said before the game. “My velo was dropping and my slider didn’t feel right most of the year, the movement didn’t feel right.”
Ottavino said he was “able to pitch around it.”
“I felt like I pitched pretty well despite not being as dangerous as I usually feel,” he said. “I found a way to survive it and get zeroes for the most part til the end of the year.”
This season he’s taken off and been as effective as at any point of his career.
Hitters have been able to hit just about any of his pitches, despite the decrease in velocity carrying over from last year, with his sinker now sitting just above 92 mph compared to over 94 mph two years ago.
Ottavino said he switched up his pitch mix in the latter part of last season, staying away from his cutter as his primary pitch versus lefties and increasing his usage of changeups to righties, among other alterations.
“I was happy with my pitches at the end of last year,’’ Ottavino said. “But this year, I’ve been able to finish guys off better than I was at times last year.”
He pointed to a midseason stretch in which he struggled to put anyone away — a 12-appearance span from July 15 to Aug. 13 in which he whiffed just four batters in 10 ²/₃ innings.
“That killed me a little bit,’’ Ottavino said. “I was pitching for ground balls a lot, which is still part of the game, but right now I’m getting to two strikes a lot and I’m able to have a chance to end the at-bat.”
His put-away percentage (the rate of two-strike pitches that result in a strikeout) has nearly doubled with all of his pitches from a year ago, which Ottavino credits to getting ahead in counts.
“I came into this year not knowing how things were gonna play and definitely concerned with trying to throw harder,’’ Ottavino said. “It’s still important, but the velocity seems to be less of a factor this year.”
Part of that is Ottavino not trying to throw his slider as hard, since the reduction in speed makes his sinker appear faster.
“It makes it play up and be more effective,’’ Ottavino said.
“I’ve always been working towards the results I’m getting now and the process: to have a multitude of options I can throw for strikes and chase,’’ Ottavino said. “The ability to see the game clearly so you make a good decision a high percentage of the time. That’s the pitcher I’ve always wanted to be and I’ve had flashes of it in my career. The hard part is maintaining that feeling and execution, so I’m really thrilled with the start.”
