After last night’s painful 14-1 defeat against the Braves, the Mets really needed to get their edge back with every game counting so much more in the compact 60 game season. They did exactly that. In the Mets’ 7-4 triumph over the Boston Red Sox, starting pitching and run support seemed to line up wonderfully with seven runs offensively and strong outings by starter Michael Wacha and closer Seth Lugo. (box score)

Michael Wacha had a very strong start going five innings, giving up only one run.

Chasen Schreve gave up one run in his first game with the Mets. The main concern of the game was the performance of Jeurys Familia who gave up two run as he struggled to execute his pitches. Seth Lugo finished out the game solidly with a four-out save. 

Pitching 

Michael Wacha was a somewhat underdog addition to the Mets roster during the offseason due to a series of injuries which caused him to have a 4.76 ERA and a losing record in his 2019 season with the Cardinals.

The most notable aspect of Michael Wacha’s first outing as a Met was his off-speed pitches. Wacha’s changeup was often elite in his start catching batters off guard due to the speed and trajectory. Even though it’s up in the zone, his cutter seems to stop midway leaving many batters striking out swinging. 

Wacha started off the bottom of the first solidly only allowing a bunt single to Benintendi in the first. Despite him making a good defensive play bare handing the ball to Alonso, the first baseman couldn’t make the connection. 

He then struck out Martinez with a series of nasty cutters and got Bogaerts on a fly ball to Conforto for the third out finishing the first with 14 pitches. 

After three scoreless innings with Wacha having only given up a walk and ground single in the second and third respectively, the shut out eventually ended in the bottom of the fourth when the 29-year-old gave up a single home run to Mitch Moreland making the score 7-1 with two outs.

The hit came after a lineout from Rafael Devers and a strikeout from Bogaerts. Wacha finished without any further damage when Christian Velasquez flew to Davis in the left field for the third out. 

Wacha started the fifth with 56 pitches, and promptly allowed singles to both Alex Verdugo and Jackie Bradley Jr. Jose Peraza then flew out for the first out, Wacha left the two players on base by making a great play to tag out Benintendi on a ground ball and JD Martinez flying out to retire the side with the Mets unscathed.

After pitching five solid innings Wacha was taken out with his final line an impressive 1.80 ERA over 5 IP, 5 H, ER, BB, 4 K, and 44 strikes over 78 pitches. It was mentioned in the broadcast that Rojas had expressed “fear for his life” in catching Wacha’s changeup and that kind of energy and solid execution was clearly seen tonight. 

Where Chasen Schreve lacked in his pitching in his first game as a Met, he made up for it with some great defensive plays making it out of the sixth yielding a home run to Xander Bogaerts..  

Overall Schreve compensated for some poorly executed pitches by making some great defensive plays 

Jeurys Familia  had some trouble in the eighth locating his pitches with only 11 strikes over 20 pitches. Familia allowed two hits and two runs to make the score 7-4 Mets in the bottom of the eighth. 

Seth Lugo relieved the struggling Familia and recorded the final out of the eighth inning. He then pitched a solid ninth to secure his first save and the Mets second win. Lugo did a solid job tossing 15 strikes over 22 pitches securing the four-out save. 

Offense

The Mets came out swinging in today’s game with an impressive 7 runs on 11 hits. All of the runs were courtesy of the long ball.

The game started off with Amed Rosario’s single on an error who then got pushed to second on a base hit from Jeff McNeil. Rosario then tried to advance to third but was tagged out by Bogaerts jumping over him in the process. 

Rosario was originally called safe but the call was overturned due to Bogaerts tagging him subtly on the foot. McNeil is then picked off by Bogaerts in an attempt to steal second to end the top of the first. 

JD Davis then walked to start the top of the second getting the leadoff man in the second straight inning. Michael Conforto then finally gets his first home run of the season which was a 434 foot two-run blast over the bullpen in right field giving the Mets a 2-0 lead. 

Rosario proceeded to single on a line drive to center field in the top of the third which then brought up Pete Alonso who hit an insane 116.3 mph two-run home run over the Green Monster for his first home run of the season. The rocket of a hit was the third hardest hit of the 25-year-old’s career so far.

After last season’s 53 home runs, Alonso’s lack of big hits through spring training and summer camp had some people worried. It was nice to see in today’s game that his bat was as solid as ever with that morale-boosting screaming line drive on a 3-0 changeup.

McNeil then singled on a ground ball to Devers who couldn’t get it to first in time on an error but was stranded when Davis and Conforto struck out to end the inning with the Mets up 4-0.

Going into the fourth Wilson Ramos hit a bomb to center field for a double, bringing up Cano to bat who was walked on a full count. Then, Dom Smith came up to bat and launching  a 393 foot three-run home run extending the score to 7-0 Mets. 

In the fifth, there was an infield hit for JD Davis with catcher Christian Velasquez and pitcher Zach Godley unable to retrieve the ball to make the play. Brandon Nimmo then hit a cutter for a base hit against Godley with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, bringing up Rosario who bounced a single to the shift pushing Nimmo to second. Alonso then struck out swinging leaving the Nimmo and Rosario stranded to end the inning. 

The Mets did not score or threaten for the rest of the game.

 

On Deck

The Mets’ management is still discussing who will start in the second game of the series against the Red Sox tomorrow at 7:30 pm.

The game will be televised on SNY and broadcast on WCBS 880- AM.