Making his major-league debut on Tuesday night, the 21-year-old center fielder walked three times, scored two runs, stole a base, lined a triple triple for his first-ever big-league hit, and drove in two runs in the Mets’ 10-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
“I felt good, comfortable, confident, excited,” Ewing said. “…It definitely beat my expectations. It was indescribable.”
It was the exact sort of spark a dormant Mets (16-25) offense needed after being held to three or fewer runs in each of their last four games.
Tabbed as an on-base machine, Ewing’s first plate appearance was a seven-pitch walk, which loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the second and the Mets trailing 2-0. Francisco Alvarez halved the deficit by beating out a double play.
“From the very beginning, the first at-bat, the quality of the at-bat, the takes, not panicking, just under control,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza gushed. “He got ahead and still is able to take pitches closer to the strike zone, and just the way he was taking them. There was rhythm, he’s on time… But man, he was pretty much perfect at the plate today, and it was pretty good to see that.”
After flying out to the warning track in center field in the fourth, Ewing walked with one out in the sixth inning, quickly stole second, then came in to score when Bo Bichette’s tailor-made double play ball was thrown into right field by Tigers third baseman Gage Workman.
“I think that’s kind of part of my identity as a hitter,” Ewing said. “Be patient, see a lot of pitches, and make the pitchers work hard.”
One frame later, he rocketed a 104.2 mph liner down the right field line for a triple, which scored Brett Baty from first. It made Ewing the first-ever Met to triple in his debut. He came in to score on Luis Torrens’ RBI single to make it an 8-2 game.
Ewing became just the 19th player since 1898 with multiple walks and a stolen base in his MLB debut, and the first to do so since his Mets teammate, Carson Benge, on Opening Day earlier this season. According to Sarah Langs, such a stat line has happened multiple times in the same season only once, when Sam Woodruff and Miller Huggins both did so for the Cincinnati Reds on consecutive days in 1904.
He also became just the fourth player in Mets history to have a game of three walks, a triple, and a stolen base, joining Jose Reyes, Howard Johnson, and Lee Mazzilli.
Freddy Peralta rebounded from a difficult start to salvage a quality start, in which he allowed two runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts in six innings of work. Both runs came in the second inning — a lead-off home run to Dillon Dingler before Spencer Torkelson drove in Wenceel Perez on a sacrifice fly.
The Mets scored in three straight innings, tying the game in the third when Mark Vientos poked a single through the vacant right side of the infield and taking the lead in the fourth when Benge drove home Alvarez with a single.
Workman’s sixth-inning error came with the bases loaded, when his awkward running throw sailed well over second baseman Zach McKinstry to score Ewing and Torrens — the latter drawing a walk after subbing in for Alvarez after he injured his right leg on a swing. He left the game mid at-bat on a 2-2 count. Juan Soto drove in the third run of the sixth inning with a groundout to first base.
The Mets added two more in the eighth, fueled by more poor fundamentals from the Tigers. With runners on the corners and one out, Austin Slater’s comebacker was fielded by reliever Kyle Vanasco, but the Detroit pitcher simply dropped the ball while running to first base, allowing Soto to score. A Marcus Semien infield single to load the bases was followed by Ewing’s third walk of the night, bringing in the final run of the evening.
“You don’t see that right out of the gate,” Mendoza said of Ewing’s plate discipline. “You see that from players coming up through the system, and they have a pretty good understanding of the strike zone, but not when you get here. With the quality of the pitching, you’re gonna be jumpy at times. Today, he was just under control from the very beginning.”
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