Joey Lucchesi made his final push to make the Mets in yesterday’s outing. Technically it wasn’t a start as Lucchesi came in after “opener” Jacob Barnes.

Joey Lucchesi was splendid and in my opinion earned the spot on the Mets roster. So let’s break down his recent outing.

Lucchesi started sharp in his first inning, getting Tucker to ground out after three pitches. Lucchesi followed with getting big lefty hitting Alvarez on a fly out. 5 pitches, 5 strikes for Lucchesi. His last batter in the first was Gurriel, who struck out.

Lucchesi started the at bat with two fastballs up and away to the right hitter. After getting behind, Lucchesi threw a nasty Churve down in the zone. The Churve had a vertical break of 48 Inches as it broke thru the down. Gurriel swung over it, to get Lucchesi back in the at bat.

Lucchesi followed with a 92.4mph sinker on the inside corner, after Gurriel fouled off a Churve, Lucchesi got the call on a nasty Churve on the inside corner to fan Gurriel looking. Great efficiënt first inning for the lefty.

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Lucchesi got a quick first out in his second inning, getting Jason Castro to ground to third after 3 sinkers. He went with the Churve to get young Jose Siri for the second out.

Siri was overmatched by the Churve as Lucchesi got him after three straight Churves, the last one got 49 inches of vertical drop. deGoti followed with a baseline to Lindor, who almost made a sparkling play to get him. Lucchesi allowed the hit on the Churve after getting ahead with two sinkers. It didn’t hurt him as Altuve grounded to second on a sinker.

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Lucchesi third inning started with a quick out to get Brantley. Bregman followed with a first pitch single, going after the first pitch sinker.

Tucker grounded out after Lucchesi got behind 3-0 on a get me over sinker, but Lucchesi got help from McNeil who robbed Tucker with a diving stop. Yes, Lucchesi got help from his defense, but Tucker didn’t hit the ball hard (81.7 MPH Exit Velo).

Lucchesi got out of the inning with a hard ground ball from Alvarez, who grounded out to McNeil on the sinker. Lucchesi got a bit lucky as Alvarez ground out had a .710 expected BA.

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The fourth Lucchesi inning, started with a first pitch ground out on his sinker from Gurriel. He followed with striking out Castro on a foul tip. He started the at bat with a churve that got 52 inches of vertical break, his best of the day. He followed with Sinker, Churve, Sinker, to get the foul tip.

He walked Jose Siri, surprisingly after mainly throwing sinkers. Siri struck out on 3 Churves and Lucchesi threw just one in the walk to Siri in the fifth.

Lucchesi got out of the inning by getting deGoti on a very slow grounder. He got to 0-2 after three sinkers and got the 65mph exit velo force out, on the Churve.

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Altuve struck out to open the sixth as Lucchesi got him looking on an inside corner sinker. Lucchesi pitched him inside in the entire at bat. Lucchesi got behind with the Churve (down and in) and Sinker (up and in) 2 and 0. Altuve got the pitch to hit with the 2-0 sinker in the middle of the zone. Altuve fouled it off, to help Lucchesi out. After a called strike up and in the zone, Altuve fouled off the Churve. Lucchesi then surprised him with a inside corner sinker. Great sequence to get Altuve looking.

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After Brantley grounded out to short, we’re Lindor ragned to his left for the out.

Lucchesi fell behind 3-1 to Bregman, that he paid for. Bregman got a sinker in the middle of the zone and hit it 413ft. It was the last pitch Lucchesi threw after a very strong outing.

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With this outing Lucchesi put himself in the rotation. He mixed up his pitches really well and spotted it well for the most part of his outing. His Churve has been nasty this spring as he got 41.2% whiff rate.

Lucchesi got a lot of quick outs and didn’t allow a ton of foul balls. He threw 43 strikes in his 62 total pitches, which shows his great control in the outing. Also good to see that he got 8 ground outs and four strikeouts in the outing. In the graphic below you see he mostly sits around the corners, which some obviously in the middle. Impressive to see how much he was around or in the zone.

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Overall Lucchesi has been splendid over 13 innings of work. He allowed just 7 hits, 4 walks, while striking out 15. With his 2.77 ERA, he has earned his spot.

Photo by: Joey Lucchesi Twitter