The Mets took both games of a weather shortened series against the Minnesota Twins this weekend, with a pair of games that offered something for everyone. If you prefer watching the Met’s offense, Friday night’s game was the game for you as the Mets trounced the Twins 16-5, highlighted by scoring five runs in both the first and second innings. If pitching is more your preference, then Matt Harvey delivered in a big way delivering a stellar performance on Saturday afternoon. Here are the 3 & 3 from this series…
Matt-Tastic: Taking a cue from Joe D., how else can we describe Harvey’s outing on Saturday. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and got two outs before giving up a home run to Justin Morneau. Harvey also pitched a personal best eight innings. We are quickly running out of superlatives to use on Matt… He truly is Matt-tastic.
Offense Returns: After looking lackluster in Philadelphia, the Mets offense returned with a vengeance on Friday night. The Mets scored sixteen runs, highlighted by who else, but catcher John Buck who hit a grand slam in the second inning. On Saturday, Marlon Byrd got the offense started with a home run, part of seven consecutive base hits that plated four runs. A good sign here is the Mets are scoring lots of runs despite getting pretty much nothing from Ike Davis.
Murph’s No Smurf: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Daniel Murphy is a big-time major league hitter. He’s also a pretty decent second baseman now too. On Friday night Murphy had four hits to go with four RBI. Then on Saturday, Murphy was two-for-four with another RBI.
Baby It’s Cold Outside: The snow was flying prior to the start of Friday’s game, and we did see some flurries all during the game. I believe Saturday’s game time temperature was 34 degrees which broke long-standing MLB record. Keith and Gary said that Minnesota baseball fans voted for an open stadium. Be careful what you wish for. The Twins also gave the fans free coffee and hot chocolate on Friday night. Maybe I’m getting old, but I don’t even go to Met games in April because it’s too cold, I can’t imagine watching baseball during a snowstorm.
The Silly Overhang: What’s the deal with that overhang in right field? It’s just like a little shelf hanging over the playing field. It doesn’t provide extra seating, and it just looks dumb. It’s almost as dumb as that silly hill the Astros have in centerfield.
The Reyes Injury: Last week we reported that former Met starter R.A. Dickey was off to a rough start in Toronto. Well, it got even worse for the Blue Jays on Friday night when Jose Reyes injured his ankle sliding into second base. The Jays expect Reyes to be out at least until the All-Star break, and that’s a shame. Get well soon Jose, and Met fans take heart, we aren’t the only team to have trades and free agent signings backfire.
It’s off to the frozen tundra that is Colorado for a four-game set with the Rockies, before the Mets return back home next weekend. As usual, Let’s Go Mets!
