The Mets were firing on all cylinders yesterday. Today they look to keep that going and bring that momentum in the regular season which is less than a week away!
Max Scherzer tossed 100 pitches yesterday, allowing two runs from four hits and striking out 11 batters, including striking out the side to end his outing. The bullpen behind him (Santana, Muckenhirn, McLoughlin) all tossed scoreless outings allowing only two hits while striking out three batters.
The bats also came out with Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso each collecting two hits and racking up a combined five RBIs. Omar Narváez also joined in the fun collecting two hits and hitting his first homer of the spring. The Mets bats and arms will take on the Cardinals tonight and hopefully will keep the good times flowing:
Three Things To Watch For:
- Rotation Battle: It looks like one of David Peterson or Tylor Megill will be the second starter on the team, breaking up Scherzer and Verlander and making sure that Verlander starts the home opener. Today will be the second turn in the rotation where both pitchers are expected to make an extended appearance. Last time Peterson entered the game with eight scoreless innings in spring while Megill had one earned run in basically the same stretch. Peterson turned in an additional four scoreless innings while Megill struggled a bit, allowing six runs, only three earned, over 2 2/3 innings. We will see this roster battle live, today!
- Finding Nimmo: Nimmo returns to the lineup today after a scary injury. Only a few days after Edwin Díaz went down, Nimmo slid into second awkwardly. He was down for about a minute or two and concerns were that he had a similar injury. He was diagnosed with low grade sprains in his knee and ankle and was considered week to week putting Opening Day in doubt. A couple of days ago he played in a minor league game and hit a triple. Today we’ll get the sense if he’s good to go, or not, for Opening Day.
- Opening Day Lineup? Tonight’s lineup is incredibly close to the Opening Day lineup. We finally see the return of Jeff McNeil, playing in his first spring training game since the World Baseball Classic. There are two reasons why this may not actually be the Opening Day lineup. Most likely Omar Narváez will be the Opening Day catcher, he did catch Scherzer yesterday. Nido, however, is having an amazing spring training. Then there’s Brett Baty. Does he still have time to win the job from Eduardo Escobar? Can Escobar show tonight that he should start the season at third?
Let’s Go Mets!
