Mets' Nolan McLean shuts down Phillies in third MLB start, propels club to sweep

When Nolan McLean strikes out hitters at Citi Field, a little lightning bolt appears on the ‘K’ counter near the left-field foul pole.

It’s mostly because “McLean” sounds like “Lightning McQueen,” the animated racecar from the movie “Cars.” It’s apt. McLean, too, is an electric rookie, and Wednesday’s start — an eight-inning gem that keyed a 6-0 win over the Phillies — all but cemented the fact that all this time, the Mets had a proverbial Ferrari locked up in the garage.

No longer.

McLean Wednesday became the first pitcher in franchise history to win his first three starts, and he continued to showcase confidence, mature pitch sequencing, and that elite spin rate against one of the best offenses in baseball. The Mets have won five of six and, with this sweep of the Phillies, are four games behind them for first place, with another four games against their division rivals in two weeks.

“All I can say is, wow,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s got electric stuff but he’s got pitchability. He knows what he’s doing on the mound, he knows how to manipulate the baseball, he knows what hitters are trying to do to him.”

McLean faced the minimum through six, and allowed four hits with no walks and six strikeouts; he threw 95 pitches, 71 for strikes. He’s given up just two runs in 20  1⁄3 innings (an 0.89 ERA) and hasn’t walked a batter in his last two starts.

Nolan McLean of the @Mets is the first MLB pitcher to have:

3-0 record
20+ innings
20+ strikeouts
sub-.200 opp BA

...over his first 3 career starts since Randy Johnson in 1988. pic.twitter.com/6j2xOoIKW8

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) August 28, 2025

The offense, meanwhile, continued its simplified approach — stringing together base hits and grinding out at-bats in a way that was largely absent in June and July. They scored three runs in the third and another in the fifth, behind RBI singles from Pete Alonso, Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos. Vientos added a two-run homer in the seventh.

And for a team that hasn’t quite had an “appointment TV” pitcher since Jacob deGrom, the righthander’s heroics have drawn rapt attention: Fans cheered from the minute he stepped foot onto the field, and every timid, fruitless swing garnered more applause.

“He’s a stud,” Vientos said. “It’s so fun to be a part of, seeing what he does on a day-to-day basis and the confidence he has for being a rookie in the big leagues is amazing.”

McLean allowed a tough-luck single with one out in the second — a ball hit by Alec Bohm took a high hop off the lip of the infield grass — but that, too, was erased when Max Kepler hit into the inning-ending 3-6-3 double play. The Phillies didn’t get another baserunner until Bryce Harper’s two-out, seventh-inning single.

“I’ve always been a believer in my stuff,” McLean said. “Obviously the hitters here are the best in the world and I know that, but I also know I have good stuff and if I go out there and execute, I can get a lot of guys out.”

Brett Baty hit a leadoff double in the third and Hayden Senger’s bunt sailed past starter Taijuan Walker’s outstretched hand to put runners on the corner for Lindor, who lined a ball past a diving Harrison Bader to put the Mets up 1-0. Soto followed that up with an RBI single and stole second, and Alonso kept the party going, hitting a sharp grounder off the infield dirt that flashed by Bohm’s glove, scoring Lindor for a three-run lead.

The Mets continued their baton-passing in the fifth when Alonso walked with two outs, Brandon Nimmo singled to right-center, and Vientos drove in the lead runner with a single of his own to make it 4-0.

McLean was aided by an amped defense, too. Jeff McNeil made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Bader of a double in the sixth, while Soto and Nimmo were excited to preserve the shutout when McLean hit his first hint of trouble in the eighth. With runners on the corners and one out, both Nick Castellanos and Bryson Stott hit mid-range fly balls, first to right and then to left. But Soto and Nimmo made throws with more than a little extra mustard on them, keeping Bohm at third.

“They’re playing for this guy right there,” Mendoza said. “[Soto] could have just caught it and thrown it to second base . . . and he was like, ‘No.’ [It was] the same thing with Nimmo. It goes to show you — it’s contagious and they’re feeling it.”

Or, to quote Baty after McLean’s previous start: “He’s electric.”

Of course. He’s Lightning McLean, after all.

Hells on earth

The Mets are continuing to workshop Ryan Helsley’s difficulties on the mound; Tuesday, he gave up a tying home run to Harrison Bader in a game the Mets eventually won, and he went into Wednesday with a 10.38 ERA in 11 appearances since being acquired at the deadline.

Wednesday, Mendoza said Helsley’s stuff was too good for teams to have “comfortable at bats like that. Something is going on there that we have to figure out.”

Asked Thursday if he was concerned about the fact that batters seem to know what’s coming – in essence, the fact that Helsley potentially was tipping between his fastball and slider – Mendoza said “there’s always a concern… but some of them have been non-competitive pitches as well. It’s a little bit of both execution and guys just taking comfortable swings off him.”

Extra Bases

Playing in his first rehab game since going on the injured list with a torn UCL in his right thumb, Francisco Alvarez was hit by a pitch on his left pinkie finger Wednesday and had to be removed from the game. He was being evaluated, Mendoza said.