After Thursday’s game was rained out, the Mets took the field at home today against the St Louis Cardinals at Tradition Field, in Port St. Lucie.
Daisuke Matsuzaka faced off against Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez, who pitched in relief last season for the Red Birds.
Dice-K, vying for the 5th rotation spot, pitched two innings, giving up six hits, one earned run, while striking out three, and John Lannan, also a candidate, followed and pitched two innings, giving up a run on three hits and striking out one.
Rafael Montero tossed two innings, allowing one hit and an unearned run with one strikeout. Steven Matz followed him and once again had a strong inning, allowing one hit and walk and then striking out the side. Both young pitchers looked impressive.
Vic Black tossed an inning, walking one and striking out two, while Jeurys Familia pitched the top of the ninth, didn’t allow a hit and struck out one batter.
Finally, today’s lineup debuted both David Wright (0 for 3, 2 LOB) and Daniel Murphy (1 for 2, BB) and each had an uneventful day except for a little chin music to Wright on the first pitch of the spring that he sees. Murphy committed an error at second base with two outs that opened the door for a Cardinals run.
The Mets trailed in the bottom of the 7th inning 5-1, but Anthony Recker (2 for 2, 2 R, HR, RBI) and Andrew Brown (2 for 2, 2 R, HR, RBI) each homered to bring the Mets closer to 5-3. In the bottom of the 9th, the Mets rallied again and scored two runs on singles by Wilmer Flores and Eric Campbell to tie the game at 5-5.
Terry Collins decided to end the game in a tie. Can’t wait until the regular season when the games count to watch a real Mets comeback victory.
Coming up: The Mets travel to Lakeland, Fl, to play the Detroit Tigers at Joker Marchant Stadium, on Saturday with the game starting at 1:05 pm.
