Friday, Saturday and Sunday saw a lot of ups and downs, good pitching and bad pitching, and even some offensive notes for the first time this Spring, so lets catch up with the 2-3 Mets.
On Friday, all eyes were on Santana who had a rough first inning but settled down for the second inning where he allowed one hit and that was it. After that , Heilman and Wagner each through perfect innings.
At this point, one has to start wondering if the 2008 Mets will be the same as the 2006 Mets in terms of Heilman in the 7th, Sanchez in the 8th and Wagner in the 9th. My thoughts right now is that will not be the case as Heilman continues his success and Sanchez is recovering. I feel that for at least the start of the season Sanchez will be the 7th inning guy and then later in the season, Sanchez and Heilman will switch off being the set-up man.
Sanchez's line: 1.0 H, ER, BB, K, HR (When you look at a box score, it just has ones across it, which looks pretty cool)
Kunz: 1.0, 2H, ER, K
Gotay also had a Homerun in thsi game and Wright, Reyes, and Alou each had RBI's
Saturday was the first win for the Mets and it was over the Dodgers as the Mets won in the ninth inning by the score of 1-0.
That being said, you know the pitching had to be good.
First to talk about the stars of the game with the bats, Abreu went 1-2 (.250 BA this Spring), and scored the winning run and Clark had the walk-off RBI. Pagan had an SB in the game.
Now for the pitching:
Niese: 2.0, BB, 3 K
Sosa: 1.0, K
Feliciano: 1.0, 2H, K
Collazo: 1.0, BB
Stokes/Wise: 1.0 K
It was great to see a great game from Neise who's name is being tossed around a lot as being an up and coming prospect. He was one of the Get to Know A Prospect for this site in the offseason. With everyone doing well in this game, all of these people still have a spot in the ring to get in that bullpen.
Sunday's Game was importaint because it involved players battling for bench spots and pitchers going for those pen spots. First off, it marked the second day in a row that the Mets beat the Dodgers in ninth inning. This time the damage was mostly done by Pagan who when 3-5, 3 RBI's, SB. He is really doing well in contention for that spot on the bench.
Gotay and A Hern each went 2-5 as well
Castro had an RBI
Perez struggled in this game, going 2.0, 3 ER, 5 H, BB
Heilman followed him with 1.0, H, K
Schoeneweis then showed he can allow runs this spring by going 1.0, 3 H, ER, K
Smith did the dame, 1.0 2 H, ER
Lugo: 1.0, H, BB, 3K
Register: 1.0, K
This game just shows that the people who were in the pen and on the bubble last year, like Scott and Joe, have to start watching their performances at Spring as the contenders are bringing their A-game. Lets build a great bullpen.
Later in the week I will do a look at the Pen battle and a look a the bench battle. Lets beat the Braves today.
