Behind strong hitting from J.D. Davis and Amed Rosario, the New York Mets defeated the Miami Marlins, 14-6, for their second win of the spring. Davis had three hits and four RBI capped by a two-run home run in the second while Rosario went two for four with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Danny Espinosa hit a three-run homer in the eighth as part of a seven-run outburst where the Mets sent 11 batters to the plate scoring seven times.
Despite hitting the ball hard all afternoon against Miami, the Mets found interesting ways to score, plating runs on a force play to a drawn-in infield, a safety squeeze and a wild pitch that didn’t go more than ten feet away from home plate. Robinson Cano had a more standard RBI as he stroked a two-out single in the fourth to plate Gavin Cecchini.
Steven Matz made his first start of the spring allowing one run on three hits while striking out three. He allowed a long home run to Lewis Brinson in the second, one of two homers Brinson hit on the day.
An area of concern for the Mets is their fielding as they committed four errors for the second consecutive game and could have been charged with five today if not for some friendly home town scoring. Three of the four errors came from third base as Cecchini had two and Sam Haggerty had the other.
Pitching:
Steven Matz started for the Mets and worked around an error by catcher Tomas Nido that allowed Brian Anderson to go from first to third on a stolen base. Matz struck out two in the frame.
Matz returned to pitch the second and allowed a home run to Lewis Brinson to tie the score at one. Later in the inning, Matz allowed a single to Marlin’s catcher Bryan Holaday but induced a ground out by J.T. Riddle to end the inning.
Walker Lockett made his second spring appearance as he came in the third and retired the Marlins in order. In the fourth, however, he gave up Brinson’s second home run of the game. It was Brinson’s third homer of the spring in only eight at-bats.
Paul Sewald came in the fifth inning and yielded a solo home run to Isan Diaz. He struck out two Marlins in the frame.
Anthony Kay came on in the sixth inning and yielded three runs. The first was on a hard grounder to third by Austin Dean to score Monte Harrison who had walked to open the inning. Brian Anderson stroked a bases-loaded single to plate the other two runs. The Mets, who once led 6-1 in this game, saw their lead shrink to 7-6 after Anderson’s hit.
Arquimedes Caminero, Ryan O’Rourke and Tim Peterson worked together to shut the Marlins out in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning respectively.
Offense:
The Mets wasted no time getting on the board in the first off of Miami starter Wei-Yin Chen. After a double by Rosario and a single by Davis, Keon Braxton sent a bunt up the first-base line that scored Rosario. The safety-squeeze gave the Mets the lead in the game they would never relinquish.
In the second, the Mets scored five runs to take a 6-1 lead. Rajai Davis led off with a ringing double followed by a single by Cecchini putting runners on first and third. With first-baseman Jeremy Vazquez at the plate, Chen threw a pitch that Holaday could not handle cleanly and the ball bounced about ten feet away from the plate. Chen did not cover home as Davis sped down the third base line to score on the ‘wild-pitch.’ Runs two and three of the frame were courtesy of a double by Rosario to give the Mets a 4-1 lead. Marlins’ manager Don Mattingly took the ball from Chen after the double and gave it to Adam Conley who after a Cano ground out, gave up a two-run home run of the bat of J.D. Davis.
The Mets scored a single run in the fourth on the RBI single by Cano off of reliever Pable Lopez that scored Cecchini who had walked to open the inning.
The game turned into a laugher in the seventh as the Mets would send 11 men to the plate with seven scoring. Marlins pitcher Kyle Keller opened the frame by walking Quinn Brodey and allowing a double to Kevin Kaczmarski.
Patrick Mazeika drove home Brodey on a force play to make it 8-6. After two walks, Keller was lifted for Ben Meyer, the Marlins seventh pitcher of the game. After another walk, Meyer gave up a two-run single to J.D. Davis and a three-run home run by Espinosa to make the score 14-6 which was the final.
Tommy Eveld and Jordan Yamamoto pitched three scoreless innings for the Marlins in the game.
On Deck:
The Mets will play their next two spring games on the road against the St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers. Tomorrow the Mets travel to Jupiter to play the Red Birds at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium at 1:05. Jacob deGrom will make his second start of the spring opposed by Miles Mikolas for the Cardinals.
