The Mets lost to the Cubs and fell back to an even .500 record. The series was a tough one to swallow, but even with a gut punching loss, we saw a great positive sign.

Sean Reid-Foley came in after Lucchesi allowed 3 runs over 3 innings and pitched 3 perfect frames. So time to take a look what worked for the 25 year old righty.

SRF would start his outing with a get me over slider for a called strike against Baez. He got another called strike on a 4 seamer in the middle of the zone. The normal free swinging Baez, took both pitches which got him in a 0-2 hole. SRF would try and get him to chase the slider down and away, which Baez fouled off. SRF followed with an up and in 4 seam fastball to get the swing and miss for the first out in his Mets career.

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He went on to challenge Duffy with Fastballs and got the Ground Out on a 1-2 Fastball on the outside corner. Duffy rolled it to Villar for the second out. XBA: .220

Two sliders to David Bote got him to ground out softly (40.2mph Exit Velo) back to Reid-Foley for an easy out. XBA: .210. It was the only slider that was put in play against him.

His second inning Reid-Foley started off blowing his fastball past Marisnick to get a strikeout. Oddly enough, SRF had 2 pitches right in the middle of the zone. Clearly hitters were fooled by the zip on his Fastball, which maxed out at 94.7 in his outing.

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He got Pinch hitter Nick Hoerner on a up and in fastball to fly out softly to right. XBA: .010

He ended the inning with a fastball/change-up sequence to get Happ Swinging. After three fastballs SRF threw his first two change-ups to get Happ swinging over the pitch.

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Reid-Foley had his most difficult spot in his third inning, facing 2-3-4 hitters in the lineup.

He went fastballs to Wilson Contreras to get his fourth and final strikeout of his outing. After a first pitch way down the zone he went after Contreras up. After a generous swing call on the check swing, Reid-Foley went on to get swings and fouls above the zone.

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He ended his outing with two outs on balls in play. Bryant grounded out to Villar and Rizzo lined out to the center fielder Pillar.

Bryant ground ball was clocked at 106.4 exit velo with a .460 XBA. Rizzo his liner was clocked at 85.8 with a .180 XBA. As SRF ended a very successful outing with getting the Cubs heart of the order, in order.

It was fun to see SRF using his fastball with great success. In his outing he got 7 whiffs on his fastball of the total 16 pitches. A 44% whiff rate on a pitch he used 74% of the time is a great sign.

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It shows that even without a big fastball, it’s a pitch than can get life. As we could see SRF pitched a lot up in the zone with his fastball, which worked. (GRAPHIC BELOW: Red FB, Yellow: Slider, Green: Change-Up)

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And on top of it all. How can you not like the set up, when he checks the sign!

Photo by: Andrew Gibson on Twitter