Positives from last night: The Mets played baseball! For the first time since March 11th, the Mets suited up to play another professional baseball team. There were some differences. Gary, Keith and Ron were not all in the same booth. The dugouts extended into the stands with specific seats marked “Sit Here”. Some players and coaches had masks on in the dugout and bullpens, others didn’t. There was less throwing the ball around the infield after a strikeout. Things we’ll get used to in short order.
The real foe of the night for the Mets wasn’t the Yankees – it was their own defense. The Mets scattered 4 fielding and throwing errors throughout the night that led to things getting out of control in the 9th inning. Plenty of us, myself included, are probably reading too much into it because it’s the first real thing related to the Mets to start overreacting to in some time.
Nature is healing I guess.
Anyway, on to tonight. The Mets will send out Corey Oswalt, who is fighting his way up the depth chart. Oswalt saw a cup of coffee with the Mets last year logging 6.2 innings of work over 2 games while allowing 9 runs. In the minors however he started 18 games pitching 92.2 innings with a 2.82 ERA. Before the global pandemic upended all life as we knew it in the states, he pitched 3 games in spring training totaling 8.0 innings allowing 2 runs, 1 earned.
The Mets will also to roll with this lineup tonight:
- Jeff McNeil 3B
- Pete Alonso 1B
- Robinsion Cano 2B
- Yoenis Cespedes LF
- Micael Conforto RF
- J.D. Davis DH
- Amed Rosario SS
- Brandon Nimmo CF
- Rene Rivera C
Outside of Wilson Ramos, who I thought was going to play tonight, this fairly close to normal starting lineup for the Mets. It’s nice to see McNeil start after sitting yesterday and Luis Rojas is giving Mets fans something to debate, rolling with Robinson batting third again. (We’ll see if this happens once the season starts also, I’m saving my complaints about it until then).
The obvious, glaring highlight in the lineup is Yoenis playing in the field. He’s going to primarily DH this year (at least that’s what the common perception is) but this is still nice to see.
This lineup will have to deal with Jordan Montgomery. During the 2019 season he pitched in 2 games, 4.0 innings he allowed 3 runs from 7 hits. He’s going to be rounding out the Yankees rotation as their 4th or 5th starter this year as he continues to work back from TJ back in 2018. Overall in Spring he allowed 5 runs off 7 hits and 4 homers over 11.0 innings of work.
Let’s Go Mets!
