Courtesy of Mets Twitter Account
It took until the seventh inning, but the Mets’ bats finally woke up in a 5-3 win versus the St. Louis Cardinals today. Following Taijuan Walker‘s Mets debut, a range of primary bullpen pieces highlighted by Edwin Diaz, Trevor May, and Jeurys Familia combined for one run across the final seven innings.
Batting
After picking up just four hits in the first six innings, the Mets finally put together a nice offensive stretch in the bottom of the seventh against the Cardinals’ Angel Rondón and Seth Elledge.
The Mets batted around after the seventh inning stretch and scored five runs on three hits, three walks, an error and a wild pitch.
Ronny Mauricio put a cap on the inning as the ninth batter up with an opposite-field, two-out single with the bases loaded that broke the tie and put the Mets up 5-3. The 19-year-old Mauricio is now 5-for-11 with three RBIs this spring and is looking really good at the plate.
Pete Alonso got on base three times via walks as his solid spring continues. He has a 1.163 OPS in 17 plate appearances so far and played a majority of the game at first base today.
Kevin Pillar batted the first Mets run of the game in during the seventh inning drove and is 6-for-12 in the spring. James McCann now has four hits in eight at-bats so far after a second-inning single today.
Pitching
Taijuan Walker made his Mets debut today with two innings to start the game. He featured a 94 mph fastball and nasty splitter in a one-two-three first inning, nabbing two strikeouts along the way.
The wheels started to come off a bit in the second–totally warranted in his first spring start–as Walker allowed two hits and a walk in the second leading to two runs. (Albert Almora Jr. flashed some leather to help limit the damage, too.)
Edwin Diaz, Trevor May, Jeurys Familia, and Miguel Castro followed, combining for four innings, one run, one walk and seven strikeouts. The one hit was on a wind-carried home run by Justin Williams off May. This is the kind of production the Mets are hoping for from these four–especially Familia and Castro, who will be even more important as Seth Lugo continues his rehab.
Tommy Hunter followed that group with a scoreless seventh, and Drew Smith pitched his second scoreless inning of the spring in the eighth (after about a 30-minute wait from the seventh to eighth).
Sam McWilliams finished the game, but not before getting himself into trouble. He started the ninth with three straight walks before a pop-up, strikeout and another pop-up got McWilliams out of the inning without allowing a run. McWilliams threw 31 pitches–19 of them were balls.
“Not the ratio you want,” as Gary Cohen said on the broadcast. Control was the crux on McWilliams when the Mets gave him a major-league deal this offseason, and we’ve seen why so far in his first two outings. We’ll see if the ship starts to right as the spring rolls along.
The Mets’ final seven pitchers combined for seven innings, one hit (the home run) and 10 strikeouts. Granted, there were six walks (half from McWilliams), too, but most of the seven pitchers are mainstays for the upcoming bullpen.
It was a solid spring game from the staff that you hope translates to the season.
On Deck
The Mets have an off day Wednesday and will resume Grapefruit League action Thursday in an away game versus the Houston Astros.
Jacob deGrom will make his second start of the spring in the Thursday game, which starts at 6:05 p.m. It’ll be broadcast on Houston Astros radio affiliate.
deGrom’s first start on Saturday was supposed to be in the evening as well (also against the Astros), so he’ll get to pitch with the sun on its way down this time around. He’ll most likely pitch between three and four innings after pitching two scoreless on Saturday.
