The Mets return to the land of daytime baseball at 1:10 today against the Nationals.
Yesterday they took a 2-1 loss against the Astros, moving their meaningless spring training record to 3-3 on the season. Tylor Megill allowed 2 runs, both unearned, over 3.2 innings from 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4. Ottavino, May, Zastryzny and Claudio all pitched scoreless innings behind him. Zastryzny (today is his birthday, happy birthday!) and Claudio are both lefty, non-roster pitchers in Mets camp this spring.
As you could probably imagine with a score of 2-1, there wasn’t much offense to write about for the Mets as they scattered 7 hits across the night. Travis Jankowski did have a 2-hit night as he tries to break the outfield depth chart and Daniel Palka added his 3rd spring training RBI.
Mets Lineup:
- Brandon Nimmo CF
- Mark Canha LF
- Jeff McNeil RF
- Pete Alonso 1B
- Robinson Cano 2B
- Eduardo Escobar 3B
- Dominic Smith DH
- Luis Guillorme SS
- Nick Dini C
Starting Pitcher: Taijuan Walker
What We Are Watching For:
Taijuan Walker finally returns to the mound! Walker had a January procedure done on his knee and he makes an important step forward today to get ready for the start of the season. Walker had two very different halves to his All-Star season last year. In his first 17 games and 94.2 innings, Walker put up a 2.66 ERA and a 1.056 WHIP. In his next 13 games and 64.1 innings, he had a 7.13 ERA and a 1.368 WHIP. Today though we just want to make sure that Walker is ok and feels good after he pitches.
The Mets will get an extended look today at Nick Dini, who signed a minor league contract with a non-roster invite to major league camp back at the end of November. Dini, from the great state of New Jersey was drafted in the 14th round back in 2015 out of Wagner College in Staten Island. He made his major league debut with the Royals during the 2019 season and hit .196/.270/.357 over 64 plate appearances. In Omaha last season, he hit .303/.357/.495 over 98 plate appearances. He is one of four catchers not on the 40-man roster the Mets invited to Spring Training this year.
Let’s Go Mets!
