213 Miles From Shea

The title is a little sensational, right now there is really a place for Bowman on the team, but yesterday he had a nice start against the Nationals pitching 5.0 innings allowing 2 hits, a walk and striking out 4 batters. In addition to Bowman’s strong performance:

• Familia did not have a good outing allowing 3 ER and 4 hits over 0.2 innings
• Mejia had a good inning allowing a hit and striking out one and doing nothing else
• Alvarez had a good outing pitching a clean inning
• Lagares only had one hit, but it was a homer, his third of the spring
• Flores was back in the lineup and went 1-3, Mayberry also collected a hit
• Reynolds went 2-2 and had a homer

The Mets offense picked it up towards the back half of the game yesterday maintaining their awesome BA, OBP and run scored they’ve shown throughout the spring. Getting closer to Opening Day!

The Mets and Yankees met again yesterday and the Mets won 7-2 behind some strong offense and timely pitching. In case you missed the game (where the WOR booth talked about buying legumes from Bed, Bath and Beyond) here are some highlights:

• Lagares picked up two more hits including a homer and a double. If he hits a shade of what he is doing right now, think about how crucial he’ll be this season
• Tejada cooled off a bit, going 0-4
• Mayberry added two hits and another homer. Here’s hoping he’s closer to Scott Hairston for the Mets rather than Chris Young.
• d’Arnaud smacked two hits
• Reynolds added a double
• Castellanos went 0-3 with 3 K’s…ouch.
• Montero pitched 4.0 innings allowing one hit (a homer) while walking none and striking out 3
• Gilmartin pitched 1.1 innings not allowing anything and striking out two batters

Montero is making things interesting for the Mets. It looks likes he has been tapped to join the major league roster and right now he looks to be a relief pitcher. However if he keeps pitching strong and someone falters, maybe he squeezes himself into the rotation.

The Mets lost their first meaningless game in a string of meaningless games today but it wasn’t all super meaningless. David Wright smacked his third homer of the Spring and Gee pitched four scoreless innings. In addition to Gee and Wright:

• Cuddyer didn’t homer, but he added his 4th double of the season
• Alvarez allowed a hit and struck out one in one inning of work
• Thorton allowed a run for the first time in a while, Torres allowed two runs in an inning
• Familia had a clean inning of work
• Captain Kirk went 0-3 with three strikeouts

Leather Rocket was sent to the minor league camp recently, so Alvarez’s outing becomes more important. The Mets are still looking for their LHP and Alvarez is starting to get his game together at the right time.

The Mets won their 8th game that doesn’t matter in their last 11 games that don’t matter putting them in a tie for second place in a league were standings don’t matter. How did they do it? Let’s take a look:

• Lagares had a cold day at the plate going 0-4 with a run, but is still hitting .375 in spring
• Granderson continued to stay hot getting three hits in four AB’s, raising his BA to .452
• Wright also cooled off going 0-4 but that dropped his BA only to .300
• Cuddyer went 2-4 hitting another homer. That’s 5 this spring
• Muno also went 2-4 raising his BA to .400 as he continues to lock in a spot in the Mets depth chart
• Campbell went 1-3 with 2 walks and scored 3 runs
• Recker finally woke up and went 3-4
• Tejada went 1-4 adding in his 6th double of the spring
• deGrom allowed 2 ER over 4 innings striking out 5 batters
• Leather Rocket faced one batter and struck him out as he tries to hang around the LHP conversation

The Mets are getting closer to the season, can the offense stay hot two weeks from now?

Harvey is the best news to combat injury news. Wheeler is out for the season? Murphy to start on the DL? Flores in a walking boot although x-rays are negative? How about Harvey pitching 5.2 innings allowing 2 hits and striking out 4 while keeping the Yankees scoreless? Boom! In addition to Harvey outing:

• Gilmartin is starting to put that terrible start to spring behind him. He pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless ball allowing a walk and striking out one
• Lagares hit an inside the park homer, Duda hit his first homer of spring, Wright hit his second as did Campbell.
• Overall Lagares had two hits, raising his BA to .417.
• Granderson went 0-3, his first poor day at the plate in a while
• Cuddyer added a double, raising his BA .333.
• Reynolds, who may have a more important role on the team after Flores took a foul ball off the foot went 0-3

Lets keep this going!

Steven Matz got the start of the Mets today and did well pitching 2.2 innings allowing 1 earned run, 1 walk and striking out 1. At the end of the game, he was sent down the minor league camp as was expected at this point in spring. Lets take a look at what else happened today:

• Thorton pitched another 2 innings allowing a hit and two walks but no runs lowering his spring ERA to 1.29
• Leather Rocket had another LOOGY performance facing one batter and getting the out. Same with Alvarez
• Lagares had two hits and a run. Both hits were doubles and he continues to fight for the lead off spot
• Tejada also added two hits including his 4th double of the month
• Duda also added a hit as he starts to rev his engine in spring
• Mayberry added two hits and a double maintaining a .452 batting average this month
• Muno also added two hits raising his BA to .400
• Recker went 0-3 as his spring continues to struggle to shift into gear.

The injury bug is starting to hit the Mets, but at least they continue to get hits as some anxiety starts to build heading closer to the beginning of the season.

The Diamondbacks have found a dessert companion to go with their Dback Dog from last year:

(Source)

Breaking this down, this is a churro in a chocolate glazed doughnut topped with frozen yogurt, whip cream and a chocolate/caramel drizzle. The ESPN article linked above, which is  worth reading because it contains notes from Chef, clocks the dessert dog in at just above 1100 calories.

So it’s an extravagant dessert. Part of the reason it looks so nice in the photo is the clean, simple plating. I’m wondering how it will look at the ballpark, especially considering it’s part frozen (thus simple cardboard would need to be lined) and it looks like has some weight (and structure) to it.

Coming off of a double win on Thursday, the Mets had another win on Friday. Let’s take a peak at some of the important moments in the game:

• Granderson went 3-3 with a run, two RBI’s and a double. He’s now hitting .458 in Spring
• Wright added a hit and is quietly hitting .348 in spring. Duda got a hit, he’s hitting a quiet .118.
• Cuddyer picked up another two hits including a homer now hitting his stride in his spring hot streak
• Kirk was 0-4 and Flores was 0-3 as the hot hitters turned cold, but Kirk also made a game saving play at the end of the game
• Colon allowed 2 earned runs off a homer in 4.2 innings where he struck out 5 batters
• Torres had a tough outing allowing 2 earned runs over .2 innings.
• Familia and Mejia had mostly clean outings.

Good things for the Amazin’s off a tough week. Hopefully it lasts.

The Mets played two games on Thursday after the Wednesday off day and they won both! Here are some highlights from the Mets double victory:

• Granderson and Cuddyer both hit jacks. I know they’re spring training homers, but for the Mets to have hope this season, they need to see this a lot in the box scores
• Lagares went 0-3 however still hitting .367 this month
• Gee pitched 3.2 scoreless innings, then Leather Rocket performed a perfect LOOGY performance facing one batter and getting a strikeout. So did Gilmartin. So there’s that. 
• Montero allowed one earned run over 3.2 innings, who is now facing Gee for the rotation spot since Syndergaard is back in minor league camp
• Flores hit a homer, Wright had two hits, Duda went 0-3 with 2 K’s in the game against the Cardinals
• Niese struck out 6 batters over 4.0 innings allowing one earned run
• Alvarez and Thorton both had scoreless 1.1 innings 

It was a good day for the Mets. Strong pitching, strong hitting. Can’t ask more than that.