The Mets had another ninth inning win yesterday as the beat the Cards. There was some nice hitting and some nice pitching with some bad pitching and some bad hitting during the game. The bigger story didn't happen in the game but Tatis, who will be on the bench or will be a platoon (in other words, he will be on the 25 man), will be playing in the WBC to replace Arod for the DR. That means for the rest of Spring, the other bench hopefuls will be seeing a lot more time, which was evident in today's box and yesterday's box. So here are some highlights from Friday's Spring Game:
The Good:
Castillo 1-2, R, BB, 2B
Valetine 3-4, 2B
Murphy 1-5, R, 2 RBI
Anderson 2-2, RBI
Sanchez 1.0 IP, 2BB
Muniz 1.0 IP, K, Win
Cherry 1.0 IP, H, Save
The Bad:
Niese 2.0 IP, 2H, 2ER, 2 BB, 2K
Reed 0-4, BB
Sullivan 0-4, BB
Sanchez is fighting for a pen job. If the Mets release him before April 1st, they will save a lot of money, but more importantly, he really struggled last season and suprises, like Rocky Cherry, could be pressing down on his bullpen spot (especially since three spots are already filled with Krod, Putz, and Feliciano), so Sanchez has to perform. Even though he allowed two walks, he didn't allow any walks and overall he has had a pretty good Spring. This is going to be a battle that is going to go down to the wire.
The other big battle this Spring has been for the bench. Sullivan and Reed are both fighting for spots, and Reed has a slight advantage just because he came over in the trade. Well they both took steps back today as they both went 0-4, on the plus side for both of them, at least they drew walks. On other side, Anderson, who was facing the possibility of losing his bench job, is also starting to streak right now. He had another nice day at the plate. Once again, another battle that is going to go down to the wire.
