The New York Mets traveled to Viera on Tuesday and defeated the Washington Nationals by a score of 2-0.
Pitching:
What a stellar performance by lefthander Jon Niese who is having himself a fantastic spring and looks to be gearing up for huge season in 2015. All he did was fire six scoreless innings, allowing just four hits, walking none and striking out three.
Niese has been working on a new delivery to put less stress on his shoulder, and by all accounts he’s looked great and even dominant at times. He improved his Grapefruit League record to 3-0 with a pristine 1.65 ERA.
“My shoulder feels as good or better than its felt in a real long time,” Niese said. “Real happy with it.”
The newest Met Jerry Blevins faced Bryce Harper in the 7th inning, striking him out. The Mets acquired Blevins from the Nationals to do just this during the regular season, come in and get out the tough lefties.
Zack Thornton continued his strong spring, tossing 2/3 of an inning, striking out one. He lowers his spring ERA to a sterling 1.80.
Rule-5 pick Sean Gilmartin pitched two scoreless innings to record the save, striking out one National and walking one. After an abysmal start to the spring, Gilmartin’s ERA now stands at a respectable 4.22.
Offense:
Ruben Tejada got the Mets on the board with an RBI single to score Daniel Muno in the 5th inning He now has 12 RBIs in 19 games. Travis d’Arnaud had a pair of singles to raise his average to .239 for the spring.
Lucas Duda singled against Gio Gonzalez today, and that marked four consecutive hits against left-handed pitching.
John Mayberry had three hits, including the big blow, his fourth home run of the spring. He improved his batting average to a team leading .426 and a .473 OBP and ten RBIs in 20 games.
Notes:
All three of John Mayberry‘s hits came off lefties today. The Mets brought him on board to serve as a lefty killer off the bench, and has proven to be up to that task.
Lucas Duda‘s hit came off Gio Gonzalez, a tough lefty. He has hit well against lefties this spring, let’s hope it continues into the season.
The Mets dominated the Nationals this spring, going 5-1 and out-scoring them 48-23. After it was the other way around last season, it would be great to see the Mets’ success against Washington carry over into the regular season.
On Deck:
The Mets will play their last Grapefruit League game at Port St. Lucie tomorrow at 1:10 against the St. Louis Cardinals, when Bartolo Colon takes the hill against Carlos Martinez.
