The most important story of the day is Santana. Johan finally returned to the mound against an opposing team today, and he did more than he had to do. The Mets booth said it right last night that all he had to do today was to pitch and compete. He didn’t need success, he just had to get the ball over the plate. After a lead off walk, Santana induced a double play ball and then waltzed through 2 frames where he allowed no hits and no runs. The real test will be how he feels tomorrow and how his arm reacts as he throws more pitches, more innings and a greater variety of pitches. Right now, Santana is exactly where he needs to be, and for a team that needs some positive news, this was just fantastic.
Torres picked up right where he left off last night. He made an impressive debut yesterday and today he went 2-3, with a bases clearing triple. He is playing with hustle. This is the type of play that the Mets were hoping to get out of Pagan last season. I hope this is the real deal out of Torres.
The other big story of the day was Nimmo’s debut. In two appearances today, Nimmo walked and went 0-1 where he also scored a run.
Other notes:
- R.A. Dickey had a great spring debut with a 2 inning, no hits and 2 K line
- Familia struggled in his debut, allowing 4 ER in 1.2 innings of work.
- Rauch also struggled in his debut, allowing 2 ER in 1 inning of work
- Keeping with the theme, Schwinden had a messy start allowing 3 runs, 1 earned in 2 innings of work
- The entire Mets offense, with the exception of Josh Satin, struggled against the Astros today including 0-3 performances by Tejada, Flores and Murphy
- Fernando Martinez, now an Astro, also went 0-3 today
