(First off, this is game 3*, earlier I was counting the exhibition against Michigan as a game, but now I decided not to. Big decision).
The Mets took their first loss in spring today as the Mets now fall to 1-1-1 for Grapefruit League. As you can imagine in a game where the score was 9-3, there were some highlights, and there were some lowlights. Big Pelf started the game and pitched three innings allowing 2 runs, one earned over 5 hits and one strikeout (no walks). To be honest, that one run shouldn't have been earned. Pagan got a little twisted in the OF and lost the ball as it came down. If this was closer to April, Angel has that ball and that run never happens. Anyway Mike wasn't lights out today, but he was good, which a promising sign. At this point, what is almost as important as the box score was that he acted like an ace up there, he seemed to have this aura of “yeah I'm the man” which is exactly what the Mets rotation needs.
Outside of Pelfrey, the only other positive pitching performance was Izzy, who pitched a scoreless/perfect inning of relief (so did O'Connor). Tankersley got off to a bad start this spring as he just allowed 3 ER in one inning of work and Carrasco wasn't much better with his 2 innings of work allowing 2 ER. Also, Igarashi also stumbled allowing 2 ER in this game. The only pitcher this really hurts is Tankersley, who is already a longshot to make the pen, but it doesn't hurt him too much, because it was only one game.
On the bats side, Murphy did great today. He made a couple of good defensive plays at third and also hit his second double of Spring, then scored a run. Angel Pagan also had a good day at the plate with his solo homer in the bottom of the first. Two Mets were able to get two hits today, and they both are some of our young guys. Fmart had a 2-3 day, now making him 3-5 in Spring. Tejada got his first two hits of Spring today going 2-2 with 2 RBI's. If he keeps hitting like that, you have to think he really does enter himself back into the conversation at second base. Valdespin and Castillo were the stumblers today. Valdespin went 0-3 and while he continues to impress on the field, it is slow coming this Spring at the plate. Castillo went 0-2 including a GDP, which with Murphy and Tejada's performance, makes it look even worse.
