SAN DIEGO — Huascar Brazobán came into Monday night’s game against the San Diego Padres rested, having last pitched Friday in San Francisco, and having gone scoreless in seven of his last nine outings. But the right-hander had shown signs that his performance slipping over the last month, and those struggles were on full display in a dismal inning at Petco Park.
He allowed both runners he inherited from Frankie Montas to score, then gave up a run of his own. The Mets blew a 5-1 lead by giving up five runs to the Padres in the bottom of the fifth, and eventually lost 7-6 with San Diego walking off. The Mets demoted him to Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday afternoon, and seemingly had their minds made up about it shortly after the game ended.
Right-hander Chris Devenski got a phone call around 11 pm local time in Arizona with word the Mets wanted to bring him back on a one-year contract. The club designated Devenski, a veteran reliever, for assignment last week. He returned home to Phoenix to wait out another opportunity this season.
“We needed a fresh arm for today’s game,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “Obviously, he’s one of the few guys, and maybe the only one, that’s got options and he wasn’t going to be available for the next couple of days. It’s just kind of where we we are.”
Brazobán has options, so it’s a low-risk move to allow him to get some confidence back and find his mechanics again. They would have had to designate right-hander Rico Garcia again to keep Brazobán on the roster since he threw two innings in San Diego. The Yankees claimed Garcia last time he was designated, and the Mets were lucky enough to get him back, but they don’t want to risk losing him again when he’s pitching so well. Garcia has yet to allow an earned run in 9 2/3 innings for the Mets.
“He continues to show us that he can help us,” Mendoza said. “That’s a pretty big role. When you have a guy that can go multiple innings, he can face righties and lefties, and he continues to get the job done.”
The Mets like Garcia’s ability to throw strikes in a bullpen full of arms that are high on strikeouts and high on walks.
A 35-year-old late bloomer, Brazobán was acquired at the trade deadline from the Miami Marlins last year for his ability to suppress hard contact and limit the home run ball. He still managed to do that this season for the most part, but he walked a lot of hitters and had some periods where he was hit hard. In 44 games this season, Brazobán went 5-2 with a 3.83 ERA in 44 games, throwing 51 2/3 innings.
The Mets liked his ability to go multiple innings, sometimes in high-leverage spots. At the start of the season, Brazobán and right-handed Max Kranick were the first pitchers out of the bullpen with a lead. But he had a rough month in June, allowing 13 earned runs on 14 hits, walking 12 and striking out only eight. Despite injuries to multiples starters and relievers, the Mets started using him in low-leverage spots and limited his innings to only 8 2/3.
However, he rebounded in July, though he still wasn’t as effective as he was earlier in the season.
Tuesday night, he was almost out of the inning with a lead. Montas had given up a two-run homer to bring the Padres back to within two runs, 5-3, and Brazobán got the the first hitter he faced out, Gavin Sheets, for the second out in the inning. Then he got Jake Cronenworth to roll over over on changeup. It should have been an easy 1-3 putout, especially since Pete Alonso made a good stop on the ball in time to get the runner.
Brazobán didn’t go to first base in time and Cronenworth beat the tag to put runners on the corners. Manny Machado scored and Brazobán never recovered, giving up two straight singles to allow two more runs to cross.
“It felt like the game kind of got fast on him after that, Mendoza said . “He hesitated, didn’t cover and it gave them an extra out. When you’re giving good teams extra outs, they’re going to make you pay. That was the case today.”
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