The results of yesterday’s game do not matter. They never matter for spring training games but they especially didn’t matter last night. Edwin Díaz made his return to the mound for the first time in about a year and was electric. He struck out the side using his mix of pitches and looked great. You can just feel the vibes rebuilding around this Mets club with Edwin back on the mound.
The Mets look to keep the vibes going tonight as they travel to West Palm Beach to play another spring training night game. As always with road games, it’s a coin flip if there will be televised coverage. Tonight there is no televised coverage, but the game will have a radio broadcast via the local Nationals radio station. So if you access to MLB Gameday Audio, or live in the greater DC area, you can tune into tonight’s game! The Nationals alternate between an FM and AM signal, tonight they are going FM, so even though the game is at night, the signal won’t travel that far.
Three Things To Watch For:
- José Quintana’s third start of spring. In the third start we see pitchers aiming to go for 60+ pitches, generally around four innings of work if everything goes alright. Quintana’s first start of spring was rocky, allowing two runs from two hits and three walks over 1 2/3 innings. His last start was crisp, allowing one run from four hits and no walks while striking out six batters of over three innings. If Quintana can go more than four innings tonight, he’ll double his total work for the spring. It’s possible because his last time out he went 54 pitches so maybe his maximum is a bit different than others. Quintana right now could be the Mets Opening Day Starter.
- Joey Lucchesi’s spring debut. Joey was supposed to make his spring debut last week against the Astros but the game got rained out. With pitchers on tight schedules, his debut got pushed all the way to today. Joey had a pretty good year for the Mets last season making nine starts and pitching 46 2/3 innings with a 2.89 ERA, 4.22 FIP, 1.307 WHIP and a 147 ERA+. At the end of the season he became part of the Mets six-man rotation where he had a 1.93 ERA, 3.63 FIP over three starts and 18 2/3 innings. He’s competing for the last rotation spot against two pitchers who have had dominant springs (Tylor Megill and José Buttó)
- Ji-Man Choi looks to continue his hot start to spring. Choi has collected 5 hits in 14 AB’s this spring including two doubles and a homer. He has also worked four walks in his eight games this spring leading to a .500 OBP. If Choi keeps getting on base at the rate he is, he’s going to force a conversation about how the Mets can find a roster spot for him.
Let’s Go Mets!
