Photo: USA Today

Jacob deGrom pitched four dominant innings and the offense clubbed three home runs in a 8-3 win verses the Houston Astros on Tuesday in Port St. Lucie.

Let’s get into what went down.

Pitching

Jacob deGrom started his third game of the spring–all against the Astros–this afternoon. He ended the day going four innings, allowing two hits, one run and now walks. The one run came on a sky-high fly ball to left field that hit the top of the wall. Dominic Smith was there, but his arm hit the wall on the way up and couldn’t snag it.

DeGrom gave up some hard-hit balls in his final frame, but he escaped the fourth allowing just a single. (Brandon Nimmo robbed Alex Bregman of a two-run home run during the inning.)

DeGrom racked up six more strikeouts this afternoon, too, putting him at 16 total for the spring in nine innings. He combined fastballs at 100 miles per hour with nasty sliders, which averaged a touch under 95 m.p.h. today, for his punch outs.

Jeurys Familia and Dellin Betances followed deGrom, each struggling in their own right.

Familia gave up two walks and a single in a row with one out before inducing weak contact with the next two batters to get out of the inning. He still has a 0.00 ERA in four spring innings, but he’s allowed six walks over that time, too. He has two more weeks to get his pitches under control. He’s been able to miss some bats when the pitches are in the strike zone.

Betances, on the other hand, continued to struggle. He allowed a two-out single and then hit a batter, but a bloop single to the next batter allowed two runs to score. He averaged just 90.6 m.p.h. on his fastball and got zero swings-and-misses on any of his 23 pitches.

The Mets’ next three relievers–Trevor May, Miguel Castro and Sam McWilliams–each had a scoreless inning.

Castro in particular looked good with two strikeouts in the eighth. He’s up to four innings so far this spring and hasn’t allowed a hit yet. Control has always been his issue, not his stuff (his sinker sat a 98 m.p.h. today), and he’s only allowed one walk so far. He’s looking like a lock for the bullpen.

Batting

Pete Alonso is the standout here. He went 3-for-3 today with a single, double, and solo home run. The double and single were both hit to the opposite field, and the home run was hit on a fastball above the letters–all tremendous signs as Pete’s spring continues to roll on.

Alonso’s slash line is now .417/.533/.958 this spring for an insane 1.491 OPS.

Francisco Lindor hit his first home run as Met in the sixth inning, belting a two-run jack to right. The home run’s exit velocity clocked in at 109.9 m.p.h., which is harder than any of Lindor’s hits in 2020, as Mathew Brownstein points out.

Dominic Smith got the first three runs on the board in the second inning with a 414-foot three-run home run to center field. It makes up for losing track of where the wall was on the home run deGrom allowed.

Jeff McNeil made strides at the plate today, unleashing two batted balls at 104 m.p.h.. One landed for double scoring Mallex Smith, and the other was a line out. McNeil was 1-for-18 so far in spring before today, but he got the ship veering on the right course today. He’s just got to be ready in a couple weeks.

The Mets’ offensive starters all played between six and seven innings, and the 1-through-8 in the lineup today will probably be what the Opening Day lineup looks like. This offense will score some runs.

On Deck

The Mets hit the road to take on the Miami Marlins Wednesday. The game starts at 1:05 p.m. and won’t be televised. You can listen to it on the Marlins’ radio affiliate via the MLB app.

Joey Lucchesi will get the start as he looks to strengthen his bid for the fifth spot in the rotation. He’s pitched two scoreless innings in one relief appearance so far this spring.