Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
Houston Astros (0-3) vs. New York Mets (1-2)
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 • 6:10 p.m.
Clover Park • Port St. Lucie, FL
RHP Jake Odorizzi vs. RHP Jacob deGrom
SNY
For the first time in as long as I can remember, the Mets have an early spring night game at home! Yes, I know spring training started late, but the point still stands, the Mets, at home during the spring, generally avoid 6 PM starts. Tomorrow’s game is also a 6 PM start at home. I’m trying to not read too much into but if someone who controls the Mets schedule for the regular season is reading this please note that this Mets fan is a supporter of 6 PM over 7 PM starts, especially in April and September.
The Mets lost yesterday but that’s not what anyone really cares about. Scherzer made his spring debut! He pitched 5.0 innings and tossed only 72 pitches (if the game continued at that pace, he would have hit 100 pitches at the end of the 7th inning). Max allowed one run off three hits and no walks while striking out 5. What a glorious spring sight. The offense on the other hand yesterday wasn’t so great to look at as they compiled only two hits, one coming from Luis Guillorme who now has a small sample batting average of .571 and OPS of 1.714.
James McCann was scratched with back soreness. Although if this was a regular season game, Buck Showalter says McCann would be playing.
Mets Lineup:
- Brandon Nimmo CF
- Francisco Lindor SS
- Jeff McNeil DH
- Pete Alonso 1B
- Robinson Cano 2B
- Eduardo Escobar 3B
- Mark Canha RF
- Dominic Smith LF
- Tomas Nido C
Starting Pitcher: Jacob deGrom
What We’re Watching For:
Happy Jacob deGrom day! Jacob returns to the mound and we couldn’t be more excited. He battled injuries for significant chunks of last year but when he was on the mound he was untouchable. Over 15 starts and 92.0 innings he had a 1.08 ERA, 1.24 FIP, 0.554 WHIP, and a 373 ERA+. His 14.3 K/9, 1.1 BB/9 and 3.9 H/9 marks were both the best in his career.
The lineup tonight is fairly close to what the starting lineup would look like without Starling Marte. More interesting is the defensive alignment – with Jeff McNeil at DH will get a look tonight at how Cano is on the same field as Escobar, Lindor and Alonso.
It’s Jacob deGrom day! Let’s Go Mets!
