Happy Pi Day! The Mets are one game below .500 in games that don’t matter as they head to the Cardinals today. Yesterday Cano hit a pie in the sky homer that went way out and provided the only runs as the Mets beat the Astros 2-1. While Cano’s strength was notable, the real apple (pie) of my eye went to Noah Syndergaard. He made mince meat (pie) of the Astros lineup allowing 2 hits and 2 walks over 5.2 innings while striking out 5 lowering his spring ERA to 1.88.
In yesterday’s game preview we noted how good of a Spring Seth Lugo was having. Generally this year that has been a kiss of death for the player that day. Not for Lugo. He tossed two scoreless innings striking out three and lowering his Spring ERA to 1.04. The lefty competition for the bullpen continues to heat up like the fight for pumpkin pie at the Thanksgiving table with Avilan bouncing back for his poor outing earlier in the week and pitching a clean inning yesterday.
So the Mets are now two weeks away from Opening Day and I’m pretty much out of pie jokes, or attempted pie jokes to continue. Let’s take a look at today’s lineup:
Mets Lineup:
- Jeff McNeil (LF)
- Juan Lagares (CF)
- Robinson Cano (2B)
- Michael Conforto (RF)
- Pete Alonso (1B)
- Travis d’Arnaud (C)
- Luis Guillorme (SS)
- Adeiny Hechavarria (3B)
- Zack Wheeler (P)
Starting Pitcher: Zack Wheeler
Things to Watch for:
- Zack Wheeler makes his 4th spring training start, aiming for 5-6 innings of work today. So far he has allowed 5 runs, 3 earned, over 6.2 innings.
- We are starting to get to that point in the spring where pitchers have to hit! There’s a possibility that the DH leaves the NL sometime in the next few seasons so this moment in spring could soon become a relic.
- Travis d’Arnaud is making the next significant step in his rehab, starting a game at catcher.
- After his homer yesterday, Robinson Cano is now hitting .423/.464/.692 this Spring over 28 PA’s. Small sample size (would reduce to about 7 games worth of PAs), but still impressive.
- Yesterday was a good bounce back day for Avilan. Wilson and Zamora go today. I would expect the Mets to carry two lefties. Avilan has an NRI and Wilson signed a contract with significant monetary value so at this point Zamora, despite having a roster spot, might be on the outside looking in to getting on the 25-man.
Let’s Go Mets!
