WEST PALM BEACH -- Paul Blackburn has been checking various boxes over the past few weeks, but after his latest outing, the 31-year-old finally feels like it¡¯s just another Spring Training.
Friday night, in a 5-4 loss to the Nationals, that meant a tough, 2 1/3-inning performance, where Blackburn gave up three runs on five hits and two walks. All three runs came on third-inning home runs by CJ Abrams and James Wood, but as Blackburn prepares to enter his ninth season in the Majors, he isn¡¯t worried about what the box score says in an exhibition game.
¡°Obviously, results help going out there, but this isn't the first time I've been hit around,¡± Blackburn said. ¡°I feel like I've been doing this for a long time, and you're going to run into weeks, months, stretches where things don't work out.¡±
Manager Carlos Mendoza continues to credit Blackburn for even being in the position he¡¯s in, competing with Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill for the final two spots in the Mets¡¯ rotation behind Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes and David Peterson. Blackburn underwent surgery to repair a spinal fluid leak in early October, presenting a different type of challenge than the veteran had ever experienced.
¡°The fact that he's on the mound pitching against big-league competition says a lot, because it was scary, what he went through towards the end of the year,¡± Mendoza said. ¡°He¡¯s working on a sinker now. That's a pitch that I'm excited about. He¡¯s a pitchability guy. He's a guy that is not going to throw hard, but he's pitching out there. That¡¯s what I like about him.¡±
Friday marked the first time Blackburn worked into the third inning this spring. He said he felt good in terms of his body and his feel on the mound, and although he admitted that ¡°there are different positions that I feel like it's harder for me to get my body into¡± following the surgery, he¡¯s no longer thinking about it when he¡¯s on the mound.
¡°Getting back out there and throwing one inning kind of checked that box,¡± Blackburn said. ¡°Last time out, just being able to sit down and go back out kind of checked that box. Now it¡¯s just a buildup process; now I'm just trying to get outs. I come into games just preparing the way I would in the season. It¡¯s not anything that I'm thinking about out there, so it's a good place as far as health goes.¡±
The Mets will be relying on Blackburn and their other healthy starters during the early part of the season, as Sean Manaea (strained right oblique) and Frankie Montas (right lat strain) will open the season on the injured list. Manaea could return before the end of April, but Montas is expected to miss at least the season's first two months, making the Mets¡¯ pitching depth crucial.
Blackburn held the Nationals scoreless in the first two innings Friday, but Abrams and Wood pounced on a pair of sinkers up in the zone. Like Blackburn, Mendoza stressed that the numbers aren¡¯t his concern.
¡°What he went through this offseason, I think it's just a matter of him feeling good physically,¡± Mendoza said. ¡°The velo is there, he¡¯s using all of his pitches. The sinker against righties; today, he left it up a couple of times against lefties. But these early results, we're not looking at that.¡±
An All-Star in 2022, Blackburn is hoping to pitch well enough to win a job in the rotation -- then hold on to it when the rest of the staff gets healthy. He knows that he and the other starters will be relied upon to fill the void left by Manaea and Montas, but the key to doing that, he said, is not trying to do too much in their absence.
¡°It¡¯s just kind of going out there and being yourself, not trying to take on a load that they would take on or trying to be someone you're not,¡± Blackburn said. ¡°I¡¯m a competitor. I'm not happy with how things ended up there, but I'm happy with where I'm at now and how my body's feeling. I feel like I'm going to be ready to start the season when the season comes.¡±