Rick Porcello's first start as a New York Met will be one he will want to forget, despite it being a "dream of [his] since [he] was a kid."
Porcello recorded just six outs and allowed six earned runs on seven hits while walking three and striking out just one. Porcello threw 56 pitches.
"I gotta execute pitches. That's the biggest thing" Porcello said after Sunday night's game. "That's the only thing that's on my mind, or should be on my mind, and that's my job."
Porcello said his fastball just wasn't there, and the Braves jumped on it.
"I thought there were some pitches I executed well with my fastball and some pitches I didn't," he said. "And the ones that I didn't were either extreme balls that were putting me into even worse counts or they were hittable pitches that they took advantage of."
Porcello said he felt a bit off mechanically with his change-up, but not so much his other pitches.
"There's obviously something wrong when I'm spiking change-ups the way I was," said Porcello. "I think the other pitches mechanically, I was fine. The pitches that I didn't execute were just misfires."
Mets manager Luis Rojas added: "We know how Rick attacks the zone, mixes his pitches, we're seeing him doing this a lot and also trying to pitch up effectively, and I think that was just one of the cases. He didn't pitch up effectively. Not high enough where he could be effective."
Porcello's next start will likely come in the Mets' weekend series against the same Braves team he faced on Sunday. So it'll be easy to take notes on his next opponent.
"That's my focus this week, is to keep working on my stuff.... Get some good work in this week and bounce back on my next start," Porcello said.