The Mets in their entire history have as many wins by the score of 12-7 as Nolan McLean [1] has wins by any score in his week-old career. The franchise required 64 seasons and a leaky bullpen to post a second win of exactly this kind, while each milestone for their newest starting pitcher appears to be the briefest of stopping-off points before he accomplishes bigger and better things. When the Mets beat the Yankees, 12-7, on May 13, 2014, it represented a Unicorn Score, a score by which they’ve won once and only once. When McLean beat the Braves, 12-7, on August 22, 2025, it indicated we might be looking at a someone tantamount to a pitching unicorn.
At the very least, we haven’t seen too many like him lately.
Thrashing the Braves Friday by five, in a game they led by ten (and could have led by more, it felt), is the immediate reward the Mets receive for hitting as we initially assumed they would this year. Twenty-one hits in all, with everybody in the starting lineup — including your heretofore feeble Taylor, Mullins, and Senger types — coming alive. Brett Baty [2] remains vibrant as a slugging second baseman, adding four hits to his ledger, which is one more than Tyrone Taylor [3] and Cedric Mulllns [4] each recorded. Baty’s production gets less surprising every day. Taylor and Mullins doing anything is a shock, but we’ll take it. Hayden Senger [5] had never driven in a run on a base hit before this game in Atlanta. Friday he drove in three with two base hits. Based on everything they’ve given us in the way of offense, you’d have assumed nothing from any of the 7-8-9 hitters. Conversely, you’d have assumed at the outset of 2025 that a monster Met night would definitely include Juan Soto probably homering, getting three hits, walking twice, and driving in four. We got that, too.
It’s very nice to have bashed the Braves, especially as they chose one of our visits to parade out their 1995 champions, one of whom was T#m Gl@v!ne. It would have been even nicer to have not let the Braves of the moment score five late runs, two off Reed Garrett, three more off Ryan Helsley in their respective mop-up stints. Edwin Diaz actually had to get loose in the ninth. Let’s hope this doesn’t sideline him for the weekend. Regardless, the Mets won, 12-7 [6]; cloned their heretofore Unicorn Score from 2014; in the process created the eleventh Uniclone Score in their history (a score by which they’ve won twice and only twice); and picked up a game on both the Phillies, if you’re feeling optimistic, and the Reds, if you’re being realistic.
And none of that was what you’d identify as the biggest development of the night. The biggest development of the night was Nolan McLean going seven innings. “Nolan McLean” is not a new age spelling for David Peterson, though if Nolan McLean continues to pitch as he has through his first two major league starts, it is indeed a new age for the New York Mets.
Too soon for that kind of horizon scanning? I’ve spent too much time this year staring into increasingly gaping Met abysses. Hell, I’ve spent too much time tracking scores of Cincinnati Reds games. I don’t know what will come of the rest of 2025. But, boy, do I want to see where this McLean kid takes us now and later.
I ended Friday night’s hybrid consumption of the Mets and Braves (Apple TV+ video, audio courtesy of Raad & McCarthy) in the mood to overreact to the instant success of Nolan McLean. I look at him in the course of a game, not only in command on the mound, but confident on the bench while his teammates bat. There’s something different about this rookie. Matt Harvey-level different. Matt Harvey, the previous Met to strike out 15 or more while giving up two or fewer earned runs in his first two major league outings, showed up with no question in his mind that he belonged in the bigs. He could overwhelm you with his certitude. I still thrill to his response after his second start, versus Tim Lincecum and the Giants. This came five days after he’d mowed down the Diamondbacks. It didn’t go as well in San Francisco, but it wasn’t bad. Matt gave up two earned runs over six-plus. Asked about it afterwards, he said (paraphrasing here) he was disappointed in himself, that his job is to give up no runs every time he goes out there.
I can still feel myself squealing in ecstasy at that attitude, even as I recall thinking it might not be a realistic standard he was setting for himself. Still, there’s something spectacularly elevating about a pitcher who comes up and not only pitches like he was born to do so, but knows it. Nolan, whose brand of intensity seems far more relaxed than Harvey’s, didn’t say anything quite so bold after his dynamic start Friday night, but, damn, I could just tell that he knew why he was here. To go at least seven innings. To give up no more than two runs. To strike out seven and walk nobody. To leave no doubt that he’d join Peterson atop lonely Mount Length.
What I really loved, besides the results, was his answer about pitching in front of Hall of Famers like Maddux and Smoltz plus the one who pitched in our uniform for five seasons but never fully stopped being one of theirs. McLean grew up a Braves fan. Nobody’s perfect, but we’ll forgive his roots. I’ve heard all kinds of promising young pitchers asked all kinds of ancillary questions after starts early in their careers. They are usually not equipped to discuss much beyond that they felt good tonight and that their catcher called a great game. Even the really good pitchers at this stage offer bland responses when queried about anything that’s a little outside their line of sight. They may not be deer, but the headlights can be bright and inquisitive. They were just called up to New York a day or a week or two ago. I’ve learned not to expect easy give and take in those postgame media scrums. It’s not what they’ve trained for.
McLean actually answered the question about the Brave legends with ease, with a smile, with detail, with complete sentences. When he was asked about if he was so focused on the game ahead that maybe he didn’t notice the ceremonies, he said, in so many words, nah, I wanted to watch, that was really cool (again, he grew up in North Carolina). He even answered the inevitable Chipper Jones question with something to actually say (he’d met him and he’s a swell guy).
[7]A fan sees what a fan sees.
I know this isn’t box score material, but it made me feel so much better about McLean’s immediate prospects, and I already felt fantastic about them. Maybe because I just finished reading Art Shamsky’s latest book [8], which included a mention of Tom Seaver being “the ray of hope on a team that had lost 101 games” his rookie year and smashing the club’s “lovable losers” image, that I immediately connected Tom Terrific to Nolan Natural. Maybe someday they’ll talk about Nolan McLean that way, that THIS righty came up to the Mets in 2025, and it began to change everything. Then I remembered the 2025 Mets, for all their unlovable foibles, aren’t on pace to lose 101 games; Tom Seaver, whether for impact or performance, is a helluva bar; and Nolan McLean has thrown exactly twelve-and-one-third major league innings.
But I told you I was in the mood to overreact.