Thursday, February 29, 2024 • 6:05 PM
CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches • West Palm Beach, FL
LHP José Quintana (0-0, -.–) vs. RHP Ronel Blanco (1-0, 0.00)
The Mets play on the road for the second time this spring as they head to West Palm Beach to take on the Astros. This will also be the Met’s first night game of the spring, which generally does not occur until later in March.
This will also be the second time this week the Mets play a game where there is no television or radio coverage in the tri-state area (and for those with MLBtv, the Astros are not providing television coverage either). This is frustrating but not that surprising. The Mets provide excellent coverage of home spring training games and that is not a standard practice throughout the league.
Anyway, the Mets look to stretch their winning streak to five games this evening. On Wednesday, the Mets beat the Cardinals 3-0, thanks to another great day at the plate from Pete Alonso and Trayce Thompson. Alonso hit his first homer of the year and Trayce went 2-for-2 with a double and homer. If you had Trayce as the first player in Mets camp with more than one spring homer, you’re a winner!
Jose Quintana.
Mets Lineup
- DJ Stewart RF
- Francisco Álvarez C
- Brett Baty 3B
- Luke Voit DH
- Ji-Man Choi 1B
- Tyrone Taylor CF
- José Iglesias 2B
- Taylor Kohlwey LF
- Zack Short SS
Opposing Lineup
- José Altuve 2B
- Yordan Álvarez DH
- Alex Bregman 3B
- Kyle Tucker RF
- José Abreu 1B
- Jeremy Peña SS
- Victor Caratini DH
- Mauricio Dubón CF
- César Salazar C
Game Notes
Tylor Megill, Yohan Ramírez, Austin Adams and Cole Sulser will follow Quintana today.
Right-handed pitcher Max Kranick has a left hamstring strain and will start the season on the injured list. Kranick was in competition for the Mets No. 5 spot in the rotation following the injury to Kodai Senga. He tossed two scoreless innings with two strikeouts in his first start of the spring.
Reliever Shintaro Fujinami is expected back in camp this weekend. He left to attend to a family matter.
Mets pitching prospects Mike Vasil and Christian Scott will make their spring debuts on Saturday against the Marlins. Sean Manaea will make his Mets debut as the starter in that game.
Three Things To Watch For
- José Quintana’s spring debut: Senga’s injury makes Quintana even more important this season. Quintana’s season got off to a scary start with a lesion on his ribs that required surgery. Thankfully, the lesion was benign. Quintana was exactly what the Mets needed in the rotation towards the end of the season, making 13 starts with a 3.57 ERA, 3.52 FIP, 1.308 WHIP, and a 118 ERA+.
- Tylor Megill’s second outing: Megill will pitch in his second spring training game today as he continues to compete for the final spot in the rotation. In his first outing, he allowed one run over two innings while striking out three batters. The first inning was rough, and Tylor had to put in work, but he was able to get out of it and have a smooth second inning. He didn’t throw his “American Spork” that much, but that also makes sense. It was literally the first spring training game. We’ll “see” if he throws it more tonight (or at least hear about it in tweets from people at the ballpark).
- Mets showing power at the plate: The Mets have hit six home runs as a team so far this spring. They’ve come from players fighting for a position on the roster (Trayce Thompson and Ji-Man Choi), to players deep on the depth chart (Hayden Senger) to starters (Pete Alonso and Francisco Álvarez). The Mets were 10th in the league in home runs last season with 215. Here’s hoping the Mets keep the homers coming tonight – even if we won’t be able to see it.
Let’s go Mets!
