A day after Griffin Canning turned in a gem in his bid to make the rotation, Tylor Megill did the same.
The 29-year-old right-hander looked sharp in his second spring outing, catching Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez looking for strikeouts and shutting down the Astros for four innings Tuesday in a 7-4 loss in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized
Donovan Walton hit a grand slam for New York (7-9-2) to break a scoreless tie in the seventh. The Astros countered with five runs in the bottom of the inning, pummeling Jose Urena, who gave up an RBI single to Luis Guillorme and two-run doubles to Altuve and Brendan Rodgers. Urena recorded just one out.
Megill, Canning (3.2 scoreless Monday, five Ks) and Paul Blackburn are competing for the last two spots in the rotation, should the Mets open the year with a five-man rotation. Megill gave up two hits, walked one, rung up five strikeouts and talked to SNY after the game.
“Consistency, that’s always been my downfall,” he told the network, “and being able to string together continual good starts after good starts.”
“I’ll have stints of good starts and then I’ll been in the ruts where I have three, four bad starts and then come back, throw few good starts. As long as I can stay consistent I think the outcome’s going to be very very good.”
Max Kranick continued his dominant spring, striking out two in a scoreless inning. He has thrown eight scoreless innings in Grapefuit League play with 10 strikeouts and no walks. Sean Reid-Foley gave up two runs on three hits in one inning.
Luisangel Acuña (2-for-3, run) doubled into the right field corner to lead off the game, but was doubled off third base when Tyrone Taylor lined out to short with the infield in. Brett Baty was 1-for-3 with a run and a stolen base and is hitting .370/.433/.667. Alexander Canario was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored and made a sliding catch in right field.
Manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters before the game that Brandon Nimmo (sore right knee) will go through baseball activities today and Wednesday and Starling Marte (bone bruise, right knee) will hopefully be in the lineup at DH on Wednesday.
Player of the Game
Megill did everything he could to impress Mendoza. It will be interesting to see who makes the rotation and the roster and MMO’s Patrick Glynn took a stab at that today.
On Deck
The Mets play the Cardinals Wednesday at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Fla., at 1:05 p.m. ET. Miles Mikolas (0-0, 4.15 ERA, 4 Ks) starts for St. Louis. The Mets starter is TBD.
