Recapping Thursday:
The Mets last played on Thursday (only in Spring Training/Opening Weekend are off-days scheduled for Friday) and beat the Nationals 8-4, dropping the Nationals to a meaningless 0-3 record. Big days for a few starters on the Mets – Brandon Nimmo opened the game with a leadoff homer and Pete Alonso hit a grand slam.
On the mound, David Peterson allowed one hit in 2.0 innings in his first outing. Peterson is competing for the 5th rotation spot and probably has the inside track for now. Familia walked a couple but got out of it. Loup and May, two bullpen signings in the off-season had great days too. Betances though – not so much. He allowed 2 hits and walked 2 which led to 4 runs. Overall, a good day for the Mets!
On Tap For Today:
If you woke up today expecting the Mets to play the rare Spring Training night game – you were mistaken! Due to weather the game has been moved up which means we get to celebrate Jacob deGrom earlier in the day! Jacob is coming off of another amazing season where he finished third in Cy-Young Voting. He led the league in strikeouts with 104 (second straight year leading in K’s) and led in K/9 at 13.8. He posted a 2.38 ERA, 2.26 FIP, 0.956 WHIP and 178 ERA+, all better than his previous year.
There’s a lot to look for after deGrom too! Miguel Castro is scheduled. Last year he ranked in the 100th percentile for fastball speed, 65th percentile for fastball spin and 77th percentile for whiff percentage. He’ll be followed by Edwin Diaz who was in the 99 percentile or higher in K%, Whiff%, Fastball Velocity, and xSLG last season.
Towards the end of the afternoon, we’ll look at more pitchers trying out for the last rotation spot with Tommy Hunter, Joey Lucchesi and Mike Montgomery.
