The New York Mets welcomed their fellow East Coast Grapefruit League opponent, the St. Louis Cardinals, to Clover Park for a Wednesday afternoon matchup. The Mets came away with a 3-0 shutout of the Cardinals as the pitching staff came together to limit St. Louis to just five hits.
Right-handed pitcher Reed Garrett was on the mound for the Mets to start things off in his second start of the spring against Miles Mikolas for the visiting Cardinals. It was Mikolas’ first start of the spring season.
Garrett struck out two and gave up one hit in one inning of work.
Following Garrett, the Mets sent six other pitchers to the mound, including Josh Walker, Grant Hartwig, Peyton Battenfield, Trey McLoughlin, and Joshua Cornielly. Walker and Cornielly each struck out two on Wednesday, while Battenfield and McLoughlin each tossed two scoreless innings.
Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized
Offensively, the Mets struck first in the bottom of the fourth with a home run from Pete Alonso off of Cardinals’ pitcher JoJo Romero that went to deep left field and out of Clover Park to give the Mets a 1-0 lead over St. Louis. That home run was Alonso’s second hit of the day, making him 2-for-2 on the day. He also hit a double in the third off of Mikolas.
Trayce Thompson continued his impressive spring slate when he extended the Mets’ lead over the Cardinals to 2-0 with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning, which also made him 2-for-2 on the day. His first hit was a double off of Mikolas in the first.
Jett Williams showed off his ability to put the ball in play in the seventh with an RBI single to extend the Mets’ lead to 3-0 over St. Louis. They did not look back on that lead as they went on to defeat the Cardinals 3-0.
The Mets won in a crisp 1 hour and 59 minutes, thanks to fine defensive plays by Rylan Bannon, Zack Short, and others.
POSITIVE PROSPECT PERFORMANCES
The Mets’ young prospects played well on Wednesday and shined specifically in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s game.
- Alex Ramirez: 1-for-2
- Jett Williams: 1-for-1, RBI
- Trey McLoughlin 2 IP, 0 R
- Wilkin Ramos, 1 IP, 0 R, K, Save
PLAYER OF THE GAME: PETE ALONSO
Pete Alonso started the Mets’ offense off with a solo home run in the fourth that gave them a lead that they did not look back on. He was 2-for-2 on the day with a double as well.
ON DECK
On Thursday, the Mets will travel to West Palm Beach to take on the Houston Astros at Cacti Park of the Palm Beaches at 6:05 p.m. ET. José Quintana is currently slated to make his first start of the spring. Quintana spent most of the 2023 season on the injured list. He was 3-6 with a 3.57 ERA in the 13 games last season.
