{"id":339143,"date":"2026-09-06T01:40:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T01:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/339143\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T01:40:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T01:40:38","slug":"zac-thorntons-rare-clunker-makes-his-mets-future-less-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/339143\/","title":{"rendered":"Zac Thornton’s rare clunker makes his Mets future less clear"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the most part, Zac Thornton has taken advantage of chances afforded by a lost Mets season and run with the opportunity.<\/p>\n

Saturday, his gait slowed to a stumble.<\/p>\n

The lefty, who has been one of the real curiosities of the second half while pitching far better than his pedigree, became victim to a laser show from Giants batters in a 9-5 loss in front of 30,046 at Citi Field.<\/p>\n

Thornton\u2019s 12th major league start was his worst, serving up four home runs in five innings \u2014 after letting up a total of seven in his initial 61 \u2153 innings \u2014 from Giants hitters who clearly looked to pounce early in the count.<\/p>\n

Rafael Devers and Christian Koss needed to see just seven pitches from Thornton to launch four home runs, the unlikely pair of bash brothers (Koss, the No. 9 hitter, entering with four career home runs) teaming to knock out Thornton after he was charged with six runs on seven hits and a walk with six strikeouts.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Mets pitcher Zac Thornton (49) gives up a home run to San Francisco Giants first baseman Rafael Devers (16) in the first inning at Citi Field on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

Every time Thornton gets the ball serves as an audition for next season. It is possible he enters this offseason as a depth option whom the Mets pencil in to the Triple-A Syracuse rotation next April. It is possible Thornton \u2014 who had not allowed more than four earned runs in a start until Saturday \u2014 pitches his way, in September and in camp, to a No. 5 job likely behind Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, Sean Manaea and a winter addition.<\/p>\n

A 2023 fifth-round pick who pitched serviceably but not superbly with Syracuse, Thornton does not have the velocity to put away many batters. <\/p>\n

He has to mix, think and locate to be successful, which he largely has during an impressive major league run in which he owns a 3.53 ERA.<\/p>\n

But Devers and Koss were guessing early and guessing correctly, launching homers off four different pitches.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Mets pitcher Zac Thornton (49) gives up a two-run home run to San Francisco Giants third baseman Christian Koss (50) during the third inning. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

Devers, the second batter of the game, pulled a third-pitch cutter to right for the first run; Koss turned on a second-pitch fastball that was about shoulder-high \u2014 far out of the zone \u2014 and swatted it to left for a two-run shot in the third inning; Koss added another in the fifth, keeping a first-pitch sweeper just fair and tucking it inside the left field foul pole; before Devers, two batters later, got a first-pitch slider on the outside edge and went with it for an opposite-field shot that made it 6-2.<\/p>\n

Late Giants home runs against Jefry Yan and Justin Hagenman added to the deficit.<\/p>\n

The Mets\u2019 offense did not do enough against Anthony Molina and the Giants\u2019 bullpen, managing just a two-run homer from A.J. Ewing in the second, a bases-loaded walk from Brett Baty in the seventh and a two-run double from Baty in the ninth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the most part, Zac Thornton has taken advantage of chances afforded by a lost Mets season and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,9,11,320,10,319],"class_list":["post-339143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}