Recapping Yesterday:
It’s the second week of spring training! Yesterday we started to see the hallmark of the second week: starting pitchers getting three innings of work in and bullpen pitchers making their second appearance. There’s now a third calling card of the second week – baseball games lasting all 9 innings.
Stroman had a bumpy start in the first inning yesterday, allowing 2 runs, but then settled down after than pitched two more innings of scoreless baseball. After the game he commented that his fastball usually takes longer to get to 93-94 mph than it has this season and that it’s a good sign. He was followed by Loup and Blevins who each allowed a run, Barnes who bounced back and didn’t allow any runs. The side-armer, Hildenberger struck out the side and Nogosek had an amazing line of allowing 3 walks but striking out the side. Zamora, also battling for a bullpen spot, allowed a hit and nothing else. So a good day on the mound for the Mets.
On the other side, Alonso continued his hot spring picking up another hit, increasing his OPS to 1.135. Pillar increased his spring OPS to 1.825 with a double (also had some real questionable defense in the game) and Villar absolutely destroyed a baseball on a 3 run homer.
What We Are Looking For Today:
Jordan Yamamota will make his second spring start as he continues to compete for the last rotation spot (both David Peterson and Joey Lucchesi did well their first time around last week). Jordan looked great last week, scattering two hits and recording a strikeout in one inning of work.
After Yamamota we’ll get to see highly touted Mets prospect Matt Allan get some work in! Followed by Betances who is looking to rebound from his first spring training game.
On the other side we’ll get to see a good amount of regulars in the lineup, despite it being a road game (without split squads this year, it’s going to be the norm). The Mets will open up with Nimmo/Lindor/Conforto/Smith which on days when Alonso doesn’t play could easily be the top 4 in the lineup. Nimmo is off to a hot start this spring and Smith is coming off a game where he hit a homer. Mets prospect Brett Baty is the starting DH and hopefully get at least 2 PA’s.
