The New York Mets (4-7) were defeated by the Miami Marlins (7-3) in Port St. Lucie at Clover Park Tuesday afternoon with a score of 6-1.
Pitching:
Noah Syndergaard made his second Spring Training start this year. Thor was looking to build on his strong performance from his prior outing. Syndergaard hurled three innings against the Marlins, struck out five batters, allowed three runs (two earned) including a solo homer to Garrett Cooper.
Robert Gsellman came in to relieve for two innings. He had a positive outing, only giving up one earned run. Jeurys Familia was the next man up out of the bullpen. His appearance looked effortless, pitching a 1-2-3 inning. Brad Brach pitched the seventh inning, only allowing a leadoff single, then being able to get the next three outs. Paul Sewald took the mound in the eighth; he pitched a scoreless inning to keep the score at 4-1 Marlins. Adonis Uceta struggled in his inning of work in the ninth, where he allowed two runs to come home across the plate on three hits.
Offense:
Jeff McNeil was the leadoff hitter in Port St. Lucie against the Marlins Tuesday afternoon. He got the Mets offense started, smashing a solo home run over the right-field wall on a 3-2 count to tie the game at 1-1. Overall, he went 2 for 3 with a single after being pulled out after the sixth inning. Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso‘s bats were quiet as they went for a combined 2 for 6 with two singles. Utility man Max Moroff also had a nice day at the plate, where he went 1 for 1 with a base hit into right field, then walked in his next appearance.
Tim Tebow had two plate appearances after coming in to play left field for the remainder of the game. His first at-bat resulted in a strikeout on a 3-2 count. The second time he came up to bat, he was able to work a walk on a 3-2 count to keep the Mets alive at the bottom of the ninth inning.
The Mets were held scoreless for the remainder of the game as they were only able to produce the one run that Jeff McNeil provided from the first inning. They went 0 for 2 with runners in scoring position, and there were five runners left on base.
The Mets tried to make a bid at a comeback with the bases-loaded at the bottom of the ninth inning, with a leadoff double from Andres Gimenez following two walks from the next two batters: Tim Tebow and Jake Hager. Third-baseman David Thompson, though, grounded out to shortstop to end the game.
On Deck:
The New York Mets will be playing the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday afternoon at 1:10 pm. The Mets scheduled starter will be Marcus Stroman. He’s (0-1) this Spring with a 4.91 ERA and, as of right now, the Cardinals’ pitcher has yet to be announced. The game will be televised on ESPN.
