The Mets and Astros faced off on Monday afternoon at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach in what was the penultimate game of spring training 2022 for the Mets. It was Carlos Carrasco on the mound for the visiting Mets against Jose Urquidy for the home-team Houston Astros.

It was an offensive back-and-forth game for the first couple innings, but it was the Astros who struck first. The seventh inning is where the Mets’ bats exploded, including a three-run home run by Dominic Smith to give the Mets a 3-2 lead over the Astros before the Astros made a comeback and the game ultimately ended in a tie.

The Mets tried to get action started in the top half of the first inning, but were unable to produce. The inning started with a lead-off single by Jeff McNeil and followed by a walk to Starling Marte to put two runners on with no outs to open the game on Monday. Francisco Lindor grounded into a double play and Pete Alonso flew out to retire the side as the Astros avoided damage being done.

The Astros then turned around and also came out strong in the bottom half of the first. Back-to-back leadoff singles by Jose Altuve and Kyle Tucker put the Astros in business with two runners on. Altuve advanced to third on Tucker’s single to put runners on the corner. Alex Bregman followed and grounded into a double play, but Altuve scored to give the Astros a 1-0 first inning lead. Yordan Alvarez struck out to end the inning.

The Mets again tried to get things going in the second inning. With one-out, Robinson Cano reached on a fielding error by Bregman. Mark Cahna singled behind Cano to move Cano to second, and then Dominic Smith also singled, which advanced the runners and loaded the bases with one out. James McCann, however, grounded into a double play to leave the runners stranded for the Mets.

The bats stayed hot for the Astros, as well, in the bottom of the second. Yuli Gurriel led off with a double to left field. After a fly-out of Michael Brantley, Chas McCormick singled to center field and advanced Gurriel to third. Jeremy Pena then grounded out to third, which scored Gurriel and extended the Astros’ lead over the Mets to 2-0.

Martin Maldonado then walked to put runners on first and second, but Carrasco struck out Altuve to end the inning.

Both pitchers settled down in the third inning, retiring the sides in order. Carrassco collected his third strikeout of the afternoon in the bottom of the third.

The fourth inning was another quiet one for both sides, the only action coming from a two-out single by Cano for the Mets. He was ultimately left stranded at first.

The Astros went down in order in the fourth as Carrasco collected his fourth strikeout of the day.

Both sides stayed quiet again in the fifth inning. The Mets went down in order in the fifth, as did the Astros. The first out of the inning was collected by Carrasco, who was replaced by Sean Reid-Foley to get the remaining two outs.

Carlos Carrasco’s final line:

4.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO, 0 HR, 5.40 ERA

The sixth inning looked similar to the last couple, with just four batters coming to the plate for both the Mets and the Astros in the sixth. Edwin Diaz (replaced Reid-Foley on the mound) collected two strikeouts in the sixth for the Mets and was replaced by Drew Smith after walking Yordan Alvarez. Smith struck out Michael Papierski to end the inning.

The Mets’ bats came back to life in the seventh inning. Cano led off the inning and reached on a fielding error at third base. Cahna singled after Cano to advance Cano to third. Then Smith was the big bat of the day. He hit a three-run home run to right field to score Cano and Jefery de los Santos, who replaced Cahna on the base pads, to give the Mets a late 3-2 lead over the Astros.

McCann followed with a single and McNeil doubled to advance McCann to third. Luis Guillorme then walked to load the bases. Lindor, however, grounded into a double play for the the first out of the inning, followed by a pop out by Tomas Nido and a fly-out by J.D. Davis to end the inning.

Seth Lugo replaced Smith on the mound for the Mets in the seventh. He struck-out Brantley and Jose Siri before giving up singles to Aledmys Diaz and Jason Castro to put two on for the Astros with two outs. Lugo then struck-out Dauri Lorenzo to get out of the inning.

Both sides went down quietly in the eighth, each putting one runner on via a walk. But no runs came across.

The Mets put their lead-of runner on in the ninth, with Daniel Palka walking to open the inning. But the Astros got out of trouble. The score remained 3-2 Mets after eighth & a half innings.

The Astros looked to rally in the ninth. Adam Ottavino pitched the ninth inning for the Mets. Brantley singled to lead-off the inning. Justin Williams came in to pinch-run for Brantley. Siri then struck out for the first out of the inning. Diaz then walked to put runners on first and second to put the Astros in business. Jason Castro then came to the plate for the Astros. He hit an RBI single on a line drive to right field that scored Williams to tie the game 3-3 and advance Diaz to second. Lorenzo flew out to center field for the second out and advanced Diaz to third.

Rolando Espinosa grounded out to end the inning and end the game in a 3-3 tie.

The Mets close out spring training 2022 on Tuesday at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches against the Washington Nationals.