Smile Away

Beehiiv informed me Gmail doesn’t allow gifs that are more than 1MB. The problem is pretty much all gifs are over 1MB? If the gifs don’t show up, click the “read online” option. 

Happy Free Monday! Consider a paid sub? You get this bad boy seven days a week instead of just on stinky ol’ Mondays.

In a rain-shortened affair, the Mets beat up on the Toronto Blue Jays by a final score of 8-1. Francisco Lindor made his Grapefruit League debut, going 1 for 3 while cleanly fielding a ground ball. 

Lefty Met prospect Zach Thornton got the start, and he was clearly nervous. After George Springer began the game with a single to left, Thornton dropped the baseball while on the mound waiting for his sign, which is a balk. That put Springer on second. Thornton continued to uncharacteristically fall behind with batters, as Springer went to third on a ground out, then scored on a Davis Schneider sacrifice fly. 

But the Mets jumped all over Blue Jays starter Grant Rogers. Lindor swung and missed at a cutter before Marcus Semien smacked a 102.7 mph home run to left to tie things up. Semien’s impatience is far more tolerable when a)he’s not leading off and b)his hard contact results in a hit. 

With one out and one on in the second, Leo Jimenéz grounded into a force out at second. It was noteworthy because Brett Baty made a nice scoop at first base. It was so good that Keith Hernandez in the PIX11 booth even commented that it was very nice.

The Met bats went crazy in the bottom of the second. Luis Robert Jr. laced a 105.2 mph single to center. Rogers balked, moving Robert to second. A Baty single moved Robert to third. Robert then scored on a Francisco Alvarez 335 foot sacrifice fly. Baty went to second on a wild pitch. Mike Tauchman technically singled to right, but the Toronto first baseman should have been charged with an error. Either way, it was 3-1 Metsies. Tyrone Taylor was hit by a pitch. Lindor reached on what was definitely an error on the first baseman Charles McAdoo, loading the bases. Semien hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Tauchman. With two strikes against new pitcher Pat Gallagher, Bo Bichette hit an inside out single the opposite way, scoring Taylor to make it 5-1 New York (NL). Jorge Polanco followed with a double down the right field line, bringing in Lindor. After Robert reached on a catcher’s interference, Baty grounded out to second to mercifully end the inning for the defending American League champions.

Thornton managed a 1-2-3 top of the third, thanks in part to a nice Bichette recovery (and nice lunge by Baty.)

The Mets offense was back at it in the bottom half. Against Grant Rogers again, Alvy hit a 393 foot double to left center. He scored on a Tauchman base knock to right. With one out, Lindor almost homered before hitting a ball hard to right for a single that moved Tauchman to third. Semien hit a sacrifice fly for his third RBI of the game - 8-1 Mets. 

Thornton ended up pitching three and two thirds  innings, allowing four hits and one earned run. He walked nobody and struck out a batter. 37 of his 60 pitches were strikes. Just one swing and miss but I don’t think that’s his game. He’s a control guy, pitch to soft contact dude. 

Luke Weaver handled the fifth. He struck out a batter and got two fly outs. Brooks Raley came in in the sixth. After Daulton Varsho popped it up to the new shortstop Ronny Mauricio, the game was called due to torrential rain. Gary Apple seemed legitimately saddened by this development. Keith Hernandez was probably delighted. I think Carlos Mendoza would have preferred if Raley got his full inning in. 

The Mets are 13-8-1 this spring. Last spring, they went 13-13-5. 

Keith Hernandez made an excellent observation: Bo Bichette doesn’t do a leg kick when there’s two strikes. 

Francisco Lindor stopped short of fully committing to playing on Opening Day, although he noted that he checked all the boxes with 10 days to go. I would be shocked at this point if he wasn’t in the lineup. Whether he should be is a different story. He looked decent enough yesterday. 

Both Luis Robert Jr. and Mike Tauchman had two-hit games. Tauchman has reached safely in 13 of his last 27 spring plate appearances. I’d put him ahead of Carson Benge in the race to be the Opening Day right fielder, if it wasn’t for the fact his arm is noticeably much weaker than the kid’s. 

The Mets assigned 11 players to minor-league camp: Carl Edwards Jr., Joe Jacques, Ryan Lambert, Kevin Parada, Ryan Clifford, Jackson Cluff, Grae Kessinger, Jacob Reimer, Jihwan Bae, A.J. Ewing and Jose Ramos. Edwards, Lambert (The Eggman), Reimer, and Ewing were all impressive, but had no real chance of making it up north. At least not right away. 

Speaking of LHP Joe Jacques - he’ll join Team Italy for their semifinal game tonight.

Huascar Brazobán struck out all three batters he faced in the sixth inning in last night’s WBC semifinal between the Dominican Republic and the United States. The batters were Will Smith, Roman Anthony, and Brice Turang. Unfortunately for Brazobán, he has a minor league option left.

Nolan McLean will start for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic title game tomorrow night.

Some Mets were quizzed on how well they knew New York slang. Peep it.

Get to know Luke Weaver a little better. (I think he likes golf.)

On this day 20 years ago, SNY first went on the air. Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez announced their first Mets game for SNY, a spring training contest against Atlanta.

Five years ago today, Lindor hit his first homer as a Met. 

Tonight the Mets take on the Washington Nationals at Port St. Lucie. The Nationals will trot out RHP Andre Granillo and LHP Ken Waldichunk et al. The Mets will start David Peterson. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 pm eastern. The game will air on SNY.