Game Summary:

…And we’re back! Welcome back to Mets baseball, ladies and gentlemen! The Mets first Spring Training game was against the Washington Nationals on a lovely Florida afternoon. Mets ran and stole like crazy but couldn’t get the RBIs and defense was shaky. Mets lose 3-1 to Nationals.

Game Recap:

Dillon Gee started off the first inning with the Mets going 1-2-3 with one strikeout. He retired the fourth batter to face him and then ran into some trouble with a Rick Ankiel homerun off Gee in his first at-bat. Mets were interested in signing him. Maybe they should have. Gee started getting a little wild with his pitches after that with plenty of pitches going wider and wider outside and eventually a walk. He was able to get out of bases loaded jam and inning by starting a nice 1-2-3 double play. Only two innings, a little bit rusty, a little bit spectacular.

Matt Harvey’s individual pitches looked good in his two innings of work. However, in total he was having trouble with his command and control, walking three batters including his first batter, and hitting one batter. He was reaching 94 MPH on his fastball, mixing that well with a very nice and developed 12-6 curve and tough slider. He did have one strikeout and was able to get a double-play grounder to end another bases loaded jam. He’s definitely got promise, and you can see what all of the buzz is about with him. He’s still got some work to do though and I doubt we’ll see him this season when the Mets have Familia, Mejia, and Wheeler in line as well.

Frank Francisco, our closer, went one inning, two hits, one earned run. Yikes.

Herrera and Byrdak combine for two innings, two hits, one walk, and one K.

Batista pitched two innings, two hits, one unearned run, two K’s, and one walk.

Batting:

Andres Torres walked in his first at-bat and then stole second and scored on a Murphy RBI with a nice slide home. Torres says he wants to be the leadoff hitter, says he plans on being a catalyst and will be aggressive with his running and base stealing, something he’s been working hard on.

Daniel Murphy back into form with an RBI single in the first inning. Also, played nice defensively. Ends up going 1-2, RBI.

Justin Turner playing third while Wright is still out with his ribs injury. He went 0-2 and had an error in the second inning.

Ike Davis went 1-2 with a single, and grounded into a double play. He later came out for a pinch runner. The fatigue that is supposed to come from Valley Fever didn’t see ail him as he was antsy for the came to start in the dugout.

Jason Bay went 0-2 with a K. He was going after those high pitches and seems to have lost even more on his bat speed.

Lucas Duda went 0-1 with a HBP. Swinging at some poor pitches.

Thole went 0-2, K. Had a nice caught stealing throw against Bernadina. Yet still making some catching mistakes with the glove.

Our shortstop Ruben Tejada went 2-2 with two singles. Looking good out there.

Some of the youngsters that stood out were Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who had a nice diving catch in center after coming in for Torres. He later made an error catching a simple pop up. Satin and Baxter each had a base hit and a stolen base. Baxter also had an assist with a throw out at second

Up Next:

Santana’s first televised start since 2010 season.