The New York Mets lost to the Miami Marlins by a score of 7-2 on Friday night at Citi Field. It was Zack Wheeler‘s first regular season start since September 25, 2014; 925 days ago.
Pitching
Wheeler started off the game with a perfect first inning accompanied by two strikeouts. He didn’t fare as well in the next two innings, however. In the second inning he gave up three runs on a walk, single, RBI triple, and RBI groundout. In the third inning Christian Yelich hit a two-run homer off the foul pole in right field making it a 5-1 game. He rebounded in the fourth as he pitched a scoreless inning. However, the one hit he gave up in the fourth was opposing pitcher Wei-Yin Chen‘s first career hit.
Overall Wheeler went four innings, struck out four, and gave up six hits, five runs, and one walk. He threw 54 strikes and 26 balls for a total of 80 pitches.
Josh Smoker came in to start the fifth inning, but did not last long. He gave up three hits, two walks, and two earned runs in a third of an inning. Rafael Montero followed and got Adeiny Hechavarria to ground into a double play to end the inning.
Montero stayed in for the sixth and seventh innings, throwing two scoreless frames. Josh Edgin was called upon for the eighth and ninth innings and he responded with two scoreless innings of his own.
Offense
The Mets struck first in the first inning as Curtis Granderson blooped a single into left field to drive in Asdrubal Cabrera. The Mets didn’t score again until Yoenis Cespedes hit his first home run of the season in the eighth inning.
While the Mets didn’t score many runs, they did accumulate nine hits. Seven different Mets had hits with Granderson and Rene Rivera being the only players that had two hits.
On Deck
The Mets will play game two of this three-game series on Saturday at 7:10 pm at Citi Field. Robert Gsellman will pitch in his second game of the season, but will be making his first start. Adam Conley will make his season debut for the Marlins after holding the Mets to a 1.20 ERA in 2016.
