The Mets play the Cardinals at home today before they head over to Jupiter tomorrow to play them again! Because it’s spring training. Here’s hoping another team eventually decides to move to the East Coast of Florida in the future.
What Happened Yesterday:
The Mets played the Marlins (shocker) and lost 6-1. But it’s spring training and the score is hiding the details of how the Mets really performed. Syndergaard’s line looks messy – 2 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, over 3.0 innings but according to people who were able to watch the game, the defense behind him was quite shaky, leading to the runs, and the homer he allowed was very much a wind assisted homer. He was getting swings and misses on pitches which led to 5 strikeouts. Brach and Familia also had great days in the bullpen allowing no runs (neither has allowed a run all Spring) and despite allowing two hits, Sewald also didn’t allow a run (and he hasn’t allowed an earned run all spring either).
The offense was quiet yesterday except for McNeil and Gimenez. Jeff had two hits including a homer and Gimenez had his second double of the spring.
On The Mound Today:
Marcus Stroman will make his third start of spring today and probably pitch around 3 innings. SO far he has pitched 3.2 innings over 2 games allowing 4 hits and 2 runs from 2 homers, 2 walks and has struck out 3. Scheduled to pitch behind him are Erasmo Ramirez, Daniel Zamora, Chasen Schreve and Stephen Nogosek. Ramirez and Schreve are in camp on Non-Roster Invitations. Zamora and Nogosek are part of the group of bullpen pitchers competing for the last spot in the pen. Zamora so far has been impressive in Spring allowing 1 hit and nothing else while striking out 4 in 3.0 innings over 3 games. Nogosek has had some bumps – allowing 2 runs from 2 hits including a homer in 2.2 innings over 3 games.
At the Plate:
There’s no one off to a hotter start right now than Jeff McNeil. IN his first 15 AB’s he’s hitting .533/.563/.800, obviously not sustainable, but he’s hot now. Here’s hoping he stays hot. Nimmo, who lost significant time last week due to medical testing in 14 Ab’s is hitting .357/.471/.429. Most impressive this spring has been top propsect Andres Gimenez who is hitting .333/.400/.611 in 8 games and 18 AB’s. The main knock on him has been “can he hit for power?” He added a leg kick and now he’s breathing down Rosario’s neck who hasn’t had a hit yet this Spring over 14 AB’s.
