Paul Blackburn struggled his last time out.
The righty allowed four runs and ended up being pulled before finishing the bottom of the first while facing a lineup filled with numerous Red Sox regulars — though he did return for the second and rebounded with a strong frame.
But taking the mound again for the Mets on Friday night, Blackburn drew a similar result.
After working around baserunners in each of the first two innings, he saw his sinker flatten out on him during the bottom of the third and Washington’s young stars were able to take advantage.
Within a string of four batters, sluggers CJ Abrams and James Wood crushed a pair of homers, then Nathaniel Lowe lined a hard-hit single back up the middle, ultimately bringing his night to an end.
Max Kranick did come on in relief and was able to avoid further damage, but his book still closed with a rather ugly line of three runs on five hits and two walks while striking out zero batters in 2.1 innings of work.
Blackburn now has an 11.57 ERA and 2.57 WHIP through three spring outings.
While it’s not the type of production anyone was hoping for, Carlos Mendoza reiterated that he isn’t worried about the results, and he’s just encouraged to see the right-hander back on the mound after an injury-riddled finish last season.
“What he went through this offseason,” the skipper said. “It’s just a matter of him feeling good right now. The velo is there. He’s using all of his pitches. The sinker was good against righties. He left it up against the lefties today, but the early results we’re not looking at.”
Even with that in mind, Blackburn admitted he’s been frustrated with this stretch — but he’s also confident that he’ll be able to work through this and will be ready to roll by the time the regular season comes around.
“Results help going out there, but this isn’t the first time I’ve been hit around,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been doing this for a long time and you’re going to run into these stretches where things just don’t work out. It definitely is a little frustrating.
“Being the competitor that I am, I’m not happy how things ended up there. But I am happy with where I’m at now and how my body is feeling. I feel like I’m going to be ready to start the season when the time comes.”
Blackburn is in the mix with Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning for one of the final rotation spots while Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas are sidelined.
