McLean Finishes Strong in Season Debut

Nolan McLean took a no-decision in his season debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday. He struggled with his command initially, but to his credit, he was able to find it towards the end of his outing. McLean completed five innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits and two walks, striking out eight along the way.

The Mets’ rookie starter opened the game with back-to-back walks to Oneil Cruz and Brandon Lowe. Cruz would eventually come around to score on a single to shallow left field from Ryan O’Hearn. After the Mets tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the second, Lowe continued his dominant series in the top of the third. McLean threw an elevated four-seam fastball, and the second baseman got just enough of it, sneaking it over the wall in right-center field for his third home run of the season. Just like that, the Pirates led 2-1.

Nolan McLean, Ridiculous 82mph Curveball. ????

3390 RPMs and 21 Inches of Horizontal Break (-14 IVB) pic.twitter.com/6I0qG8JcgX

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 29, 2026

McLean was able to find more of his best stuff from that point on, keeping the Pirates off the board for the rest of his outing. Pittsburgh had two more chances with runners in scoring position against him. They capitalized on neither of them. McLean finished his day with three strikeouts in the fifth, all with the curveball.

“Started using a little bit more cutters and changeups, obviously didn’t have much feel early in the game of the sinkers, but it started to come back to me later in the game,” McLean said about what was working for him later in his start. It wasn’t his best day, but despite that, he still gave the Mets a chance to win. On a day where your starter doesn’t have his best stuff, that’s all you can ask for.

Over 84 pitches, McLean utilized a pretty balanced attack. He used his sinker, four-seam fastball, sweeper, curveball and changeup at least 12 times each against the Pirates. In total, he generated 12 whiffs. Again, even on an off-day for him, McLean showed some promising signs. He will look to build off that in his next start on the road against the San Francisco Giants.

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