In three innings against the Yankees on Tuesday, Mets right-hander Tylor Megill threw five splitters, the same number as he did in 126 innings during all of last season, as he looks to build out his pitching arsenal and solidify his position in the starting rotation.
And so far this spring, the results have been good: Just two hits and two walks over six scoreless innings while striking out 10 in his last two starts.
“Everything feels good right now. Fastball, off-speed all my stuff,” he said after Tuesday’s outing.
“Threw some good splitters today,” Megill said, before mentioning the “one really bad one” that hit the Yanks’ Oswald Peraza in the second inning. “Just a little control issues out of the windup today, felt a little drifty towards the plate and not saying back but besides that everything is working really well today.”
On the splitter, Megill said it was as good as it has felt so far.
“I’d say it was pretty consistent today,” he said, recounting throwing one to the top of the zone and “a good one to [Trent] Gresham and then another one for a strikeout.”
On the day, his five splitters resulted in three swings. All three were whiffs as the putaway pitch on half of his six strikeouts getting Grisham, Everson Pereira and Oscar Gonzalez swinging.
“Yeah, I mean I feel really good with it just got to keep working and more so the timing, the wrist timing of throwing it,” Megill said. “...it’s just reps and getting comfortable with it and once that happens and you’re able to kind of maneuver with it and feel where you want it to go.”
The early results have been good with the righty noticing even if he threw a bad one “it’s like there’s a big hesitation in their swing. Like they’re geared up. And then you see it when it goes out there and it’s almost like a stutter and then trying to pull the trigger.”
Overall, Megill used his fastball and cutter on 36 out of 49 pitches against the Yankees, relying less on two mainstays of his repertoire a year ago the curveball (six) and slider (two). He managed to get seven called strikes and 10 whiffs on 22 swings.