The Mets were defeated by the Houston Astros, 2-1, in Thursday night’s spring training matchup at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches.
Here are some takeaways…
– Jose Quintana took the ball for New York making his spring training debut and he cruised through the first thanks to a double play ball off the bat of slugger Yordan Alvarez. The lefty returned for the second and easily retired the first two batters he faced before allowing the next four to reach on a pair of hits and a walk, ultimately bringing his night to an end.
Quintana, who was scheduled to throw between 30-40 pitches on the night, allowed two runs on two hits while walking three and striking out just one across 1.2 innings of work. The veteran is going to need to step up early on this season with ace Kodai Senga sidelined and starting the year on the IL.
– Tylor Megill made his second appearance of the spring in relief of Quintana, and as he said postgame, “everything was working” as he tossed three scoreless innings. The right-hander worked around a two-out Alex Bregman single in the third and then struck out a pair en route to an easy fourth.
He returned for the fifth and closed out a terrific outing with back-to-back strikeouts of Alvarez and Jose Altuve. With Senga’s injury presenting him a big opportunity as well, Megill’s responded by allowing just one run on four hits with seven strikeouts and no walks across his first five spring innings.
“The early results are there,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “This is a guy who worked really hard during this offseason. For him to touch 97 today, it was a heavy fastball. The way he commanded all his pitches, he threw a couple of good changeups and breaking balls, he looked good overall.”
– Brett Baty received another opportunity at the hot corner and he continued his strong play on the defensive side of the ball with a nifty diving grab to rob Kyle Tucker of a hit in the bottom of the first. His slow start to the spring at the plate continued, though, as he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and two groundouts.
– Tyrone Taylor and Ji-Man Choi continue to make a strong first impression in the early days of spring training with their new club. Taylor is hitting an even .500 after reaching base two more times and Choi picked up his second extra-base hit through three exhibition games.
– Right-hander’s Austin Adams and Cole Sulser, both of whom signed with the team on minor league deals this offseason, picked up a pair of strikeouts en route to a scoreless inning of work. Both have looked strong over their first outings as they look to scratch out a spot in the big-league bullpen.
– The Mets’ offense was held relatively in check until the top of the ninth. After Kevin Parada led off the inning with a single, Jett Williams reached on an error, and two batters later Luisangel Acuña drove in New York’s lone run of the game. Luke Ritter would come up with the bases loaded, but a double play ball ended the comeback attempt and handed the club their second loss of the spring.
Highlights
Upcoming schedule
The Mets stay on the road to face the St. Louis Cardinals at Rodger Dean Stadium on Friday afternoon at 1:10 p.m.
Luis Severino will make his first start in orange and blue against hard-throwing left-hander Matthew Liberatore.
