#Rick Porcello’s Mets outing hurt by bad pitch to Clint Frazier

Rick Porcello’s first game for the Mets at Citi Field was going smoothly enough until he hung a slider in the fourth inning Saturday.

The masked Clint Frazier crushed it into the second deck in left field, a thunderous two-run blast that essentially defined Porcello’s night. The right-hander lasted through the fifth inning and was the losing pitcher in the Mets’ 9-3 exhibition loss to the Yankees.

Porcello’s night consisted of 68 pitches over five innings in which he allowed three earned runs on six hits with three strikeouts and one walk. Porcello later threw 20 additional pitches in the bullpen to build up his count for the season.

In the fourth, Porcello surrendered a leadoff double to Giancarlo Stanton and recorded two outs before Frazier smashed a slider on the first pitch of his at-bat that quickly disappeared into the second deck in left.

“I was able to cover five innings relatively efficiently, obviously the slider to Frazier wasn’t where I wanted it, so definitely a pitch I would like to have back there,” Porcello said. “I think for the most part how things were working I felt pretty solid. A couple of things I can be a little bit better at, get ahead of hitters a little bit better, get in more advantage counts early on, but other than that first time seeing guys in a new uniform in a couple of months, so it felt pretty good.”

Porcello allowed 31 homers for the Red Sox last season, a significant factor in the 5.52 ERA that was the worst of his career. He arrived to the Mets on a one-year deal worth $10 million last winter and will be counted on, along with another new addition, Michael Wacha, to anchor the middle-to-back end of the rotation.

Where Porcello will slot in the rotation is unclear. Beyond wanting to pitch Jacob deGrom on Opening Day against the Braves on Friday, manager Luis Rojas hasn’t starting pitching plans. DeGrom is scheduled to throw a simulated game Sunday that will determine his availability for the opener after leaving his last start, in an intrasquad scrimmage, after only one inning because of back tightness.

Rojas indicated it’s possible Porcello could pitch a final preseason tune-up on Thursday.

“I thought he threw the ball well,” Rojas said.

Porcello’s slider was effective early, as he used it on strikeout pitches to Gio Urshela, Frazier and Mike Ford. The Yankees had scored a run against Porcello in the first inning on Gleyber Torres’ RBI single off Robinson Cano’s glove.

“I think we may have fell into a little bit of a pattern tonight, but [the slider] is a pitch that I need,” Porcello said. “That is a pitch that I struggled with a little bit last year, so to go out there and throw it and get the results that I want and keep throwing it and trust it, I need to do that.

“I definitely have other weapons that I can mix in, but for the most part other than that one I threw Frazier I felt pretty good with it and got some good swing and misses, and some weak contact.”

Jeurys Familia was sharp over 1 ²/₃ innings in which he allowed only an unearned run, following two throwing errors by third baseman Max Moroff. Edwin Diaz was charged for two runs (one of which was unearned because of a Luis Guillorme error) and the Yankees piled on against lefty Daniel Zamora, who allowed three runs on four hits.

With fans absent from the ballpark because of coronavirus restrictions, Porcello says he adjusted to the serenity.

“It was definitely different, just walking out to the bullpen and there’s no fans in the stands and it’s quiet,” Porcello said. “It’s just not something that we are used to. After the first couple of minutes, you roll with it.”