http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/12/sports/baseball/seth-lugo-mets-beat-atlanta-braves.html 2016-09-12 14:11:51 Seth Lugo’s Underdog Story Continues With Another Mets Win Lugo, who allowed two runs against the Braves, wants to aid the Mets’ playoff run but has another incentive to pitch well: He is trying to pay off his student loans. === ATLANTA — When he was a little-known minor league pitcher, Seth Lugo made little money, netting $200 a month, he estimated. To save money while he was playing for Class AAA Las Vegas this season, Lugo even lived with his agent’s mother. “Every year, going into spring training, my grandpa would help me out and give me some money,” Lugo said, adding that the money, about $500, would tide him over until the regular season began. Now a 26-year-old rookie with the “This guy has a feel for pitching,” Mets Manager Terry Collins said. “He knows what he needs to do. He knows how to get a ground ball and help him get out of some trouble.” But Lugo, whose E.R.A. is at 2.40 after he allowed two runs over seven innings, has another incentive to pitch well: He has about $18,000 left in “I’m still working to pay them off,” Lugo said recently. “I think I can afford it now, but I’m going to wait until the end of the season and make sure I do it right.” That fact adds to Lugo’s charming underdog story. Despite his 6.50 E.R.A. with hitter-friendly Las Vegas this season, Lugo was thrust into the Mets’ rotation because of multiple injuries to starters. He was an unheralded prospect, ranked No. 22 in the Mets’ minor league system by “There are a lot of players about whom you change your evaluation as time goes on and they continue to perform,” said Sandy Alderson, the Mets’ general manager, who has been impressed with Lugo’s poise. “He’s one of those guys that has performed. His numbers in Las Vegas were not great, but there was a reason we put him on the roster last year.” At Parkway High School in Bossier City, La., Lugo was not highly recruited: The only program to offer him a baseball scholarship was Barton Community College in Kansas. He was a walk-on at tiny Centenary College of Louisiana, a private liberal arts college in Shreveport. Lugo came from a working-class background — his father was a cable repair man, and his mother was a school bus driver — so his family applied for federal grants to help cover his college costs. About 40 percent of his tuition costs were covered by academic scholarships. “I was in all the honors classes in high school,” said Lugo, who had a 3.4 grade point average despite not being studious. As Lugo worked his way through the minor leagues and overcame a back injury, he did not have enough money to pay off his college loans, he said. So he deferred them until this past May. “This is the first year I made enough for it,” he said. Even with their depth of young pitching, the Mets liked Lugo, and they added him to their 40-man roster in November to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. That meant a big bump in pay. When he was called up to the Mets on June 30, Lugo began earning a prorated amount of the major league minimum salary, $507,500. Lugo joked that it was an 8,000 percent increase over his minor league salary. With each strong start, Lugo has earned his pay. Even though he felt tired on a humid Sunday, his deceptive fastballs and off-speed pitches kept the Braves off-balance. He allowed only one run in the fourth inning despite loading the bases. He reminded himself to remain calm and stick with what had worked, something he struggled to do in the minors. “I just tell myself these are major league hitters,” he said. “They’re going to put the ball in play, so I’m not going to try to trick them or throw it by them. I’m going to fill up the strike zone and make quality pitches in a quality location.” Cespedes’s grand slam, in the third inning, punctuated the Mets’ offensive outburst. Despite their large lead, Cespedes declined to leave the game in the eighth when Collins asked. “He’s leaving it all out on the line,” Collins said. “I tip my hat to him.” Oddly, however, Cespedes declined to speak to reporters after the game. “His bat will do his taking,” said Jay Horwitz, a Mets spokesman. After the game, Lugo did not want to reflect on his unlikely rise; he said he would do that in the off-season. But as long as he keeps pitching the way he has, he should continue to have a role with the Mets. His loans might be gone in no time. INSIDE PITCH Mets infielder