Spring Training Game Chat: Cardinals vs Mets, 1:10

Friday, February 28, 2026 • 1:10 PM
Clover Park • Port St. Lucie, FL
RHP Richard Fitts (0-0, -.–) vs. RHP Jonah Tong (0-0, -.–)
WPIX

Death. Taxes. Playing the Marlins, Astros, Cardinals and Nationals in spring training.

The Mets have already played the Marlins and the Astros and will play their first of six spring games against the Cardinals this afternoon at Clover Park. For those who like to look ahead, the Mets will play the Astros again tomorrow followed by the Cardinals again on Friday. There’s nothing quite like spring training on the east coast of Florida.

The Mets are coming off of tied baseball game where they used 10 (!) different pitchers over 10 innings. The Mets were in cruise control early thanks to a first inning, tjree-run home run from Mike Tauchman who is trying to break camp on the Mets roster as their starting right fielder. Ronny Mauricio hit an absolute tank in the first to make 4-0. Duarte ran into some problems in the 7th leading to three runs and the eventual Astros come back to tie the game.

After the game the Mets announced starting pitchers for the rest of the week with Jonah Tong going today, Nolan McLean tomorrow and Freddy Peralta making his Mets Grapefruit League debut on Friday. It’s going to be a fun week!

Mets Lineup

1. Carson Benge – RF
2. Juan Soto – LF
3. Francisco Alvarez – DH
4. Mark Vientos – 1B
5. Hayden Senger – C
6. Christian Arroyo – 3B
7. Vidal Bruján – SS
8. Cristian Pache – CF
9. Grae Kessinger – 2B

Opposing Lineup

1. JJ Wetherholt – SS
2. José Fermín – 2B
3. Nolan Gorman – 3B
4. Nelson Velázquez – RF
5. Leonardo Bernal – C
6. Nathan Church – CF
7. Joshua Baez – DH
8. Blaze Jordan – 1B
9. Chase Davis – LF

Game Notes

Luis Garcia, Adbert Alzolay, Joe Jacques, Nick Burdi and Matt Turner are scheduled to follow Tong today. Saul Garcia, Douglas Orellana, Ben Simon, Jordan Geber and Aaron Rozek are the minor leaguers available to pitch.

Francisco Lindor had his stitches removed and could begin impact activities in 2-3 days, per Mendoza.

Mike Tauchman got his Mets tenure off to a good start with a home run on Tuesday.

Three Things To Watch For

1. Jack Wenninger‘s Best Friend. Jonah Tong, best friends with yesterday’s starter Jack Wenninger, makes his 2026 spring debut this afternoon. Tong cruised through Binghamton in 2026 with a 1.59 ERA over 102 innings. He didn’t allow any runs in two starts (11 2/3 innings) in Syracuse. The Mets rushed him up to the majors and there were some growing pains. Over five starts, 18 2/3 innings, he allowed 20 runs, 16 earned. (7.71 ERA). On the positive side, he struck out 22 batters and had a 4.31 FIP. One of the questions in camp right now is where will Tong start the season? In Syracuse or the major league rotation?
2. Challenges. In both televised games on SNY this year, Gary Cohen has mentioned that Carlos Mendoza wants the Mets to be aggressive with challenges. Luis Torrens yesterday was certainly aggressive and challenged two balls that were fairly far off of the plate. He took both challenges while catching. Let’s see how the Mets handle their challenges today.
3. Cristian Pache. There was a time where Pache was one of the highest ranked prospects in baseball. He’s now trying to make a comeback with the New York Mets after a season where he spent time with the Phillies, Orioles and Marlins. Across the three teams he got 183 PA’s and hit .200/.273/.279 with a 54 OPS+. He’s been crushing it early this spring with three hits in his first two games including a homer.

Let’s go Mets!

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