The Mets welcome the Nationals to St. Lucie today with Steven Matz set to start the game after being delayed a few days with flu like symptoms (which also knocked out Guillorme for a few days and now McNeil). So if you were looking for baseball as an escape from virus talk, sorry!
Last Night:
The Mets had another night Spring Training Game! It was also the second night game that wasn’t televised in the NYC Metro area. The Astros beat the Mets with a walk-off in the ninth inning against Yefry Ramirez who was signed in June with the Mets on a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training. Yefry is not the real story for the Mets last night.
The real story, as it will be all spring when Wacha, Porcello or Matz pitch, is the battle for the back of the rotation. Wacha allowed 5 hits and a walk leading to his first Spring Training run in 2.2 innings of work. Kevin Smith, a rising prospect in the Mets system, turned in his first strong Spring Training appearance of the year allowing a hit and nothing else over 2.0 innings of work.
As for the bats, the Mets did didn’t get on base a lot last night, with Nimmo being start getting 2 hits in 3 trips, raising his OPS to 1.030. Johneshwy Fargas, the cycle hitter from the previous game, later pinch ran for Nimmo and swiped two bags, bringing his spring training total to 5.
On the Mound Today:
It’s the return of Steven Matz! I felt disrespected for Matz two days ago. The official MLB account tweeted out an image of the Mets and Dodgers rotation asking “Who is Better” and they didn’t even list Matz as a starter on the Mets! This will be Steven’s third spring training game. So far he has tossed 3.0 innings allowing 1 run off a homer, and 2 hits total. Depending on stamina (he is recovering from a flu-like bug), he should go about 3 innings or so today.
The Lineup:
- Brandon Nimmo
- Robinson Cano
- Michael Conforto
- Jake Marisnick (DH)
- Dominic Smith
- Eduardo Nunez
- Tomas Nido
- Andres Gimenez
- Johneshwy Fargas
Fargas is getting a longer look now after his play the last couple of days. He went from hitting for the cycle to stealing two bags last night. That definitely perks interest. He’s competing with Cordell and Parker on the outfield depth chart.
