The New York Mets (1-0) opened their season with a convincing 6-0 shutout win over the Atlanta Braves (0-1) in front of a sell-out crowd at Citi Field on Monday. The turnout of 44,384 fans is the second-largest regular season crowd in Citi Field history.
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The Mets improved to 36-20 (.643) on Opening Day and continue to have the best winning percentage on Opening Day in the history of Major League Baseball. They improved to 21-8 when starting the season at home and 21-3 in its last 24 Opening Days at home.
Noah Syndergaard turned in an impressive performance in his first ever Opening Day assignment, tossing six scoreless innings while scattering five hits, walking none and striking out seven. The last Mets pitcher to strike out at least seven batters without permitting a walk on Opening Day was Jerry Koosman, who did so on April 7, 1978 in a complete-game win vs. Montreal at Shea Stadium.
A blister on his middle finger that eventually popped, kept Noah Syndergaard from going past six innings yesterday. The Mets are playing it safe and will push his next start from Saturday to Sunday. Robert Gsellman will now get the start on Saturday. Read more in the New York Post.
Asdrubal Cabrera finished the game 3-for-5 and drove in the Mets’ first run of the season with his RBI single in the seventh inning to score Wilmer Flores. Initially Flores was ruled out at the plate, but the call was overturned after Terry Collins challenged it. Read more in the Daily News.
Jay Bruce drew three walks in the season opener and the last one setup the biggest play in the game – a bases clearing hit by Lucas Duda whose double in the gap over the head of Ender Inciarte drove in three runs. It was nice start to the season for two very important Mets.
Terry Collins announced that Seth Lugo was going to be out for at least two weeks despite what he called a very clean MRI. However he declined to explain what the issue was. Later on, Lugo told reporters that there will be no throwing of any kind “unless he gets a diagnosis that is different from the one Dr. Altchek gave him Monday. He too backed away when asked for more information other than “we’ll announce something on Wednesday.”
The Mets signed infielder Josh Rodriguez to a minor league contract on Monday, and assigned him to Triple-A Las Vegas of the Pacific Coast League. Rodriguez, 32, played parts of three seasons with the Mets organization previously between 2012-2015. In 11 minor league seasons he has hit .268/.356/.421 with 109 home runs.
MLB RUMBLINGS
For the first time in Los Angeles Dodgers history, it wasn’t Vin Scully behind the mic and in the broadcast booth on Opening Day. A 29-year old Joe Davis had the tough assignment of having to replace a legend. You can read more here.
When 24-year old Bryce Harper homered on Opening Day for the Washington Nationals, it was the fourth time he went deep on Opening Day. According to Baseball Reference, Gary Carter is the only other player to homer on four Opening Days before turning 25 years old. Harper has five total Opening Day homers.
The Phillies collected seven extra-base hits en route to a 4-3 win over the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Monday. Cesar Hernandez led off the game with a solo home run and Freddy Galvis also homered in the game. More on CSN Philly.
Logan Barer predicts that Robert Gsellman will win the NL Rookie of the Year award this season. He’s got some stiff competition, but if Gsellman pitches like he did last season and wins 15 games I think he could pull it off.
THIS DAY IN METS HISTORY
Original Met and beloved manager Gil Hodges is born on April 4, 1924. Also born on this day are Eric Valent, Tom Herr, and Jim Fregosi.
In 1983, Tom Seaver makes his club-record 11th Opening Day start and combines with Doug Sisk for a 2-0 win vs. Philadelphia at Shea.
In 1988, Darryl Strawberry cracks an Opening Day home run that hits the roof in Montreal. Kevin McReynolds adds four hits and three RBIs in New York’s 10-6 win.
In 1966, comedian Soupy Sales brings his two sons on stage to sing Meet the Mets during a National TV broadcast of Hullabaloo on CBS.
