ANAHEIM — Nolan McLean has been a lot of things throughout his first 15 career starts. “Hittable” has generally not been one of them.
Yet that’s what McLean was on Saturday night at Angel Stadium, when he allowed a season-high six hits and three runs to the Angels over just four innings, his shortest outing of 2026. The start raised McLean’s ERA to 2.97.
After striking out the first two batters he faced, McLean allowed three consecutive hits in the first inning to score a somewhat debatable run.
Austin Slater cut down Jorge Soler at third base on Jo Adell’s single to end the inning, and replays showed the tag occurred before Nolan Schanuel stepped on home plate. But the Mets did not challenge, allowing the run to stand.
From there, McLean retired seven straight before running into more trouble in the fourth. A one-out walk, a single and a wild pitch put two men in scoring position, before Vaughn Grissom cashed them in with a two-run single.
The Mets removed McLean from the game for Tobias Myers after McLean ended that inning at 78 pitches.
