Houston Astros (1-1) vs. New York Mets (0-1)
Tuesday, March 2, 2020 • 1:10 p.m.
Clover Park • Port St. Lucie, FL
LHP Framber Valdez (0-0, -.–) vs. RHP Marcus Stroman (0-0, -.–)
The New York Mets return home to Clover Park for their Grapefruit League home opener against the Houston Astros on this fine Tuesday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. and the action can be seen live on SNY.
The Mets played their first spring training game of the season yesterday and picked up the 2-0 loss in a seven-inning, shortened game at Miami Marlins camp.
By far the biggest storyline of the day was the Mets debut of Francisco Lindor, who went 0-2 at the plate. In general, it wasn’t a big offensive day for the Mets, who only found five hits including two from lead-off hitter Brandon Nimmo (who on his first hit, went beyond the bag and was called out).
The Mets did have success on the mound though. Harol Gonzalez had an easy inning of work to open the game and new Met, Sean Reid-Foley had an incredibly easy inning, throwing just six pitches, five of which were strikes.
Mets Lineup
- Brandon Nimmo – DH
- Francisco Lindor – SS
- Michael Conforto – RF
- Pete Alonso – 1B
- Jeff McNeil – 2B
- James McCann – C
- Luis Guillorme – 3B
- Albert Almora – CF
- Khalil Lee – LF
Astros Lineup
- Myles Straw – CF
- Aledmys Diaz – 3B
- Michael Brantley – LF
- Jason Castro – C
- Taylor Jones – 1B
- Bryan De La Cruz – RF
- Jeremy Pena – SS
- Freudis Nova – 2B
- Garrett Stubbs – DH
Today is another big day for pitchers! First up will be Marcus Stroman, who accepted a qualifying offer to come back to the Mets this year. A lot of the Mets success this year depends on Stroman’s performance as a top of the rotation pitcher.
Stroman was not originally slated to start today, and caught a lot of us off guard when he announced it on Twitter last night.
Following Stroman is Jordan Yamamoto – one of several pitchers in competition for one of the few roster battles right now – 5th starter. Yamamoto, the former Marlins prospect, was acquired by the Marlins in the Yelich trade. He was traded to the Mets a month ago.
In his rookie season in 2019, he posted a 4.46 ERA, 4.51 FIP, 1.144 WHIP and 96 ERA+ over 15 starts. Last year wasn’t so good for the young right-hander.
Several Mets bullpen pitchers are scheduled to follow. Edwin Diaz headlines the group – and his stats show that he had a better 2020 than we might collectively think he did due to his 2019. He had a 1.75 ERA, 2.18 FIP, 1.247 WHIP and a 244 ERA+ last year. Not career highs, but way better than 2019.
Drew Smith, Sam McWilliams and Jerry Blevins are also on the list for today. Blevins is back in came on a Non-Roster invitee and Sam McWilliams has garnered a lot of attention early on.
Game Notes
Brandon Nimmo is back in the leadoff spot against the left-hander this afternoon, Luis Rojas told reporters prior to Monday’s game that the team is going to try and get Nimmo as many reps as they can against southpaws during spring training.
Marcus Stroman was working on adding a split-change to his arsenal over the offseason, keep an eye out for the new pitch during his outing.
Postgame on Monday afternoon, Francisco Lindor told reporters Astros outfielder Michael Brantley was the greatest teammate he’s ever had in terms of leadership.
Check 213 Miles From Shea! We are currently looking at every player in camp with a Non-Roster Invitation.
