Mandatory Credit: Mary Holt-USA TODAY Sports

Marcus Stroman tossed five stellar innings, however the bats could not back him up, as the Mets collected only six hits on their way to a 3-1 loss on Thursday afternoon in Port St. Lucie to the Nationals.

On the Mound 

Marcus Stroman started for the Mets, his fourth this spring. Stroman surrendered one earned run over five innings, striking out six along the way. Stroman was very efficient, throwing 60 pitches with 42 being for strikes. Stroman also only allowed three hard hit balls, and the lone run came on a wind-blown homer off the bat of Kyle Schwarber.

Once again, Stroman displayed his nasty new pitch the split change collecting strikeouts of Victor Robles and Alex Avila with it. Stroman finished off his day with two strikeouts in the fifth inning on beautiful fastballs. Per Baseball Savant, he threw six different pitches on the afternoon: four-seamer, sinker, cutter, slider, curveball, and splitter.

Stroman has a 2.70 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings this spring. After that performance, it’s safe to say that Marcus is ready for the season.

Jeurys Familia followed Marcus Stroman in the sixth inning and allowed his first earned run of the spring, surrendering a home run to Nationals designated hitter Yadiel Hernandez. Familia also allowed a very hard double to Victor Robles (109.3mph off the bat), but got a groundout and flyout ended the inning. On two encouraging notes, Familia touched 99 mph with his fastball and threw 11 strikes in 13 pitches.

Aaron Loup followed Familia in the seventh inning. On the first pitch Loup threw, Josh Bell took him deep to right field. Loup then locked in, striking out Schwarber and Avila on breaking balls and inducing a soft ground ball off the bat of Carter Kieboom to get him through the inning.

Electric Edwin Diaz came in to pitch the eighth inning and for the first time,  this spring Diaz got himself into a some trouble. Yadiel Hernandez singled and Hernan Perez doubled to leave runners on third and second with two outs. Diaz worked his way out of it, striking out Carlos Tocci on a 93 mph slider to end the inning. Diaz is yet to allow an earned run this spring in four innings.

Trevor May followed Diaz in the ninth inning, pitching 1-2-3 inning on just 11 pitches.

Mandatory Credit: Mary Holt-USA TODAY Sports

At The Plate

In a game where both sets of offenses’ were silent, the Mets only run-scoring action came in the first inning. Following a J.D. Davis walk, James McCann jumped on his first pitch he saw from Jon Lester, doubling in Davis, while collecting his second RBI of the spring.

A standout performer this spring has been Kevin Pillar and he continued that on Thursday with two hits. Coming off his best offensive season yet, Pillar has picked up right where he left off. With his two hits today Pillar’s spring OPS stands at an impressive .966.

After not threatening at all after the first inning, the Mets would not go down without a fight. Back-to-back singles from Patrick Mazeika and Jake Hager put runners on first and second for Wilfredo Tovar in the bottom of the ninth inning. Unfortunately Tovar grounded into a double play (the third of the day) to kill the rally and end the ball game.

On Deck

The Mets will remain at Clover Park to face the St Louis Cardinals on Friday afternoon. Taijuan Walker will get the ball for New York for his second start in spring training.

The right-hander pitched in a B game five days ago, after making his first spring training appearance 10 days ago against the Cardinals. In that outing, Walker tossed two innings allowing two runs on two walks, while striking out two batters. This game will be televised on SNY and first pitch is at 1:10 p.m. EST.