Game Recap: Mets Blank Astros 2-0 For First Win Of Spring
In the Mets’ first home game of the spring, they shutout the Houston Astros 2-0 in a game that went seven innings. If yesterday’s non-televised road game didn’t get your baseball juices flowing, perhaps today did.
The game was the first live broadcast on SNY of the spring with Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling, and I’ll tell you, after 16 years together, it’s pretty clear these three don’t need any warmup games. Seinfeld references, late-night motel stops, maskless Florida residents and more all made their way onto the broadcast during the second game of the spring. It’s nice to have the guys back.
Now let’s talk about the game.
Pitching
Marcus Stroman threw two perfect innings to start his spring, nabbing two strikeouts in as many frames. His new split-changeup, which he’s talked about with Pitching Ninja’s Rob Friedman before, got a couple swings and misses, and overall his breaking stuff had a lot of movement.
After the game, Stroman said “my stuff’s nasty” in an interview. “I’m going to go out there and deal all year,” he followed. We’re ready for it Stro.
The newly acquired Jordan Yamamoto followed with two scoreless innings of his own. He allowed an infield hit in the third inning, but Yamamoto and catcher James McCann completed a strike ’em out, throw’ em out double play to end the inning with the next batter.
Houston’s Myles Straw then opened the fourth with a single and stolen base, but Yamamoto got the next three batters to ground out, line out, and ground out again to get out of the inning unscathed.
Jerry Blevins, Drew Smith, and Sam McWilliams each followed with a scoreless inning. Blevins and McWilliams both allowed the first two batters of their innings to reach base but each got the following three batters out.
Each threw 23 pitches, as well. McWilliams touched as high as 97 while Blevins mixed his usual fastball/curveball combo to get his final three batters out. Smith had a 1-2-3 sixth inning as he looks to bounce back after an up-and-down 2020 season (both literally and figuratively).
There was a bit of confusion heading into today regarding who would start for the Mets. It was originally announced as Jordan Yamamoto, but then Marcus Stroman tweeted Monday night he’d get the start today.
It turns out Stroman was supposed to throw live batting practice today but was ready to face opposing competition, so Rojas let him start. Either way, both guys performed as well as they could’ve hoped.
Hitting
The Mets’ hitting today was highlighted by solo home runs from Jeff McNeil and Albert Almora Jr. McNeil’s home run came off a hanging curveball in the second inning, and Almora took a 2-0 fastball to left field in the bottom fo the fifth.
Brandon Nimmo collected his third hit of the spring today with a third-inning double and Francisco Lindor got on base for the first time this spring via a walk in the fourth inning before José Peraza pinch ran for him and later doubled.
Mets prospects Ronny Mauricio (2 ABs), Brett Baty (1 AB), Pete Crow-Armstrong (1 AB), Mark Vientos (1 AB), and Khalil Lee (2 AB’s) all got a chance to hit today. Vientos was the only one who reached base on a sixth-inning infield single.
This group of guys, along with a couple more prospects, are sure to get at least a couple more at-bats in games before rosters start to trim.
On Deck
The Mets will head down to Jupiter to play the St. Louis Cardinals tomorrow at Roger Dean Stadium.
Jerad Eickhoff will get the start tomorrow, while Kwang Hyun Kim will pitch for the Red Birds. The game will be broadcast on MLB Network and starts at 1:05 EST.
Gary Cohen also mentioned on SNY that Jacob deGrom‘s first start of the spring is likely to come on Saturday in a road game against the Astros. Notch that one in your calendars Mets fans!
The post Game Recap: Mets Blank Astros 2-0 For First Win Of Spring first appeared on Metsmerized Online.