New York Mets defeat the Miami Marlins

The New York Mets defeated the Miami Marlins on Tuesday afternoon.  The game took place at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida and the final score was 8-6.  Noah Syndergaard started for the Mets  and pitched ok.  The bullpen did pretty good for the most part and Travis d'Arnaud had three RBI. 

Syndergaard pitched 3 2/3 innings giving up five hits and two runs with only one of them being earned.  He walked one walk and three strikeouts.  Jerry Blevins pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up two hits and he struck out one, Antonio Bastardo pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up three hits and three runs with a strikeout and Jim Henderson pitched an inning giving up three hits and a run with two strikeouts.  Addison Reed pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up two hits and he struck out one.  Jeurys Familia pitched an inning striking out one and Logan Verrett pitched an inning giving up a hit. 

Juan Lagares had a hit and drew a walk, Wilmer Flores had an RBI and drew a walk and d'Arnaud had a hit and three RBI.  L.J. Mazzilli had a hit and drew a walk, Nevin Ashley had a hit and drew a walk and Eric Campbell had a hit and drew a walk.  Danny Muno had an RBI and drew a walk, Marc Krauss drew a walk and Dominic Smith had an RBI.  Travis Taijeron had two hits, Ty Kelly had an RBI and Roger Bernadina had two hits.  Patrick Biondi drew a walk, d'Arnaud hit a double and the Mets were 2-10 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.  Campbell, Bernadina and Mazzilli each had a stolen base.  Lagares and Biondi were each caught stealing.  Blevins committed an error. 

In the first Justin Bour hit an RBI single to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead.  In the fourth Ichiro Suzuki hit an RBI single to make it 2-0 Marlins.  In the fifth Flores had an RBI walk to make it 2-1.  d'Arnaud hit a three run double to make it 4-2 Mets.  In the bottom of the fifth Marcell Ozuna hit an RBI double to make it 4-3.  Christian Yelich hit an RBI double to tie the game at four.  Martin Prado hit an RBI double to give the Marlins a 5-4 lead.  In the sixth Cole Gillespie hit an RBI single to make it 6-4 Marlins.  In the eighth Muno hit a sac fly to cut the lead to 6-5.  Kelly hit a sac fly to tie the game at six.  In the ninth a wild pitch made it 7-6 and Smith hit a sac fly to make it 8-6 which would be the final score. 

The Mets record improved to 6-6 with a couple of ties.  The Mets will be off on Wednesday and play in Jupiter, Florida on Thursday afternoon against the Marlins. 

New York Yankees news and notes

The Yankees had a rare off day on Monday and they will be back in action tonight when they take on the Boston Red Sox.  It is a rare night game in spring training.  I would say that so far in camp it has been pretty quiet and I think that is a good thing.  There haven't been any major injuries, Alex Rodriguez has continued to go about his business like he did so well last year and nothing else has really popped up.  I guess the biggest story was the 30 game suspension of Aroldis Chapman and he won't be appealing it. 

Chapman is the Yankees closer but will not be eligible to return until May 9th.  He has slowed down his spring training schedule and will stay behind in Tampa to work in extended spring when the team heads north in a couple of weeks.  Andrew Miller will presumably be the closer with Dellin Betances being the main setup guy until his return.  It is interesting because there are at least four other spots open in the bullpen.  It appears that Chasen Shreve will take one of them and they will have some kind of long man.  The interesting thing is will it be Bryan Mitchell serving as the new Adam Warren or will they send him to AAA to keep him as a starter and stretched out.  If they do that will they have Ivan Nova in the bullpen with CC Sabathia as the fifth starter.  If Nova outperforms him will they keep Nova as the fifth starter and put CC in the pen??  These are the biggest questions as the lineup is pretty much set. 

The Yankees bench will carry a backup catcher, right now Austin Romine seems to be winning that battle over Gary Sanchez, Dustin Ackley as the backup first baseman, Aaron Hicks as the fourth outfielder and it looks like Rob Refsnyder may make the team as the backup second and third baseman. 

Brett Gardner has not yet played in a game as they have taken it very slowly with him coming off of a bone bruise in his wrist suffered in last year one game playoff loss.  He has said all along that he is fine and he will finally get into a game on Wednesday. 

Masahiro Tanaka has looked good so far this spring and he appears to be lined up perfectly for Opening Day.  I would expect that to be the case barring any problems, I would think Joe Girardi might state that in the next week or so. 

The Yankees did cut 17 players and send them to minor league camp in their first wave of cuts.  There were some notable names such as Aaron Judge, Jorge Mateo, James Kaprielian and Jacob Lindgren among others.  I am not surprised by any of them other then Lindgren, I thought he had a good shot at making the team and definitely didn't think they would send him back so quick. 

Michael Pineda and Luis Severino have looked good this spring as well.  Severino struggled a little in his first start but has pitched a couple of good games since then.  The Yankees rotation can be very good if healthy and I think the load off of them will help also.  The bullpen is so good that they know if they give six good innings they will be in good shape. 

The New York Mets get knocked around by the Detroit Tigers

The New York Mets were defeated by the Detroit Tigers on Monday afternoon.  The game took place at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida and the final score was 9-2 Tigers.  Jacob deGrom was supposed to start the game but stayed behind in Port St. Lucie due to back stiffness.  Seth Lugo made the start instead and pitched well, the bullpen had some good and some bad.  Wilmer Flores led the offense with three hits. 

Lugo pitched two scoreless innings giving up a walk and he struck out two.  Robert Gsellman pitched two innings giving up three hits and three runs with three walks, Hansel Robles pitched an inning giving up three hits and two runs with a strikeout and Zach Thornton pitched an inning giving up a hit and he struck out two.  Rainy Lara pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up four hits and four runs with a strikeout, Kyle Regnault pitched to one batter and retired him and Gabriel Ynoa pitched an inning giving up a hit and he struck out one. 

Flores had three hits, Alejandro De Aza had a hit and an RBI and Kevin Plawecki had two hits and an RBI.  Johnny Monell had two hits, Matt Reynolds had a hit and Flores hit two doubles.  Monell and Plawecki each hit a double and the Mets were 1-10 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.  Cecchini had a stolen base and Reynolds and De Aza each committed an error. 

In the second Plawecki hit an RBI single to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.  In the third J.D. Martinez hit an RBI groundout to tie the game at one.  In the fourth De Aza hit a sac fly to give the Mets a 2-1 lead adn in the bottom of the fourth Ian Kinsler hit a sac fly to tie the game at two.  Justin Upton hit an RBI single in the fourth to make it 3-2 Tigers.  In the fifth J.D. Martinez hit a two run homerun to make it 5-2 Tigers.  In the seventh Casey McGehee hit an RBI double making it 6-2 Tigers.  Mike Aviles hit a three run homerun still in the seventh to push the lead to 9-2 and that would be the final score. 

The Mets spring record fell to 5-6 and they have a couple of tie games.  The Mets will take on the Marlins at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida on Tuesday afternoon.   

The New York Mets shutout the Miami Marlins

The New York Mets defeated the Miami Marlins on Sunday afternoon.  The game took place at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida and the final score was 11-0.  Matt Harvey started and pitched well and so did the bullpen using five relievers.  Ruben Tejada led the offense with a couple of hits and three RBI. 

Harvey pitched four innings giving up a hit and two walks and he struck out four.  Jeurys Familia pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts, Jerry Blevins pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout and Antonio Bastardo pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts.  Jeff Walters pitched an inning with a walk and he struck out one and Buddy Carlyle pitched an inning giving up two hits and he struck out one. 

Alejandro De Aza had a hit, Patrick Biondi had a hit and drew a walk and Juan Lagares had a hit.  Kyle Johnson had a hit, Yoenis Cespedes had a hit and an RBI and Danny Muno had a hit and drew a walk.  Travis d'Arnaud had a hit, Johnny Monell had a hit and two RBI and Dominic Smith had a hit.  Marc Krauss drew a walk, Travis Taijeron had a hit, two RBI and drew a walk and Eric Campbell had a hit and drew a walk.  T.J. Rivera had a hit and two RBI, Tejada had two hits and three RBI and Gavin Cecchini had a hit.  Tejada, De Aza, Johnson and Monell each hit a double and Lagares hit a triple.  The Mets were 5-13 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. 

In the second Tejada hit a two run double to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.  Reynolds reached on a fielding error and a run scored to make it 3-0 Mets.  In the fourth Tejada hit an RBI triple and it was 4-0 Mets.  In the fifth Cespedes hit an RBI single to make it a 5-0 game.  Monell hit a two run double in the seventh and it was 7-0 Mets.  Taijeron hit a two run double in the seventh to make it 9-0 Mets.  Rivera hit a two run single to push the lead to 11-0 still in the seventh and that was the final score. 

The Mets record improved to 5-5 on the spring with a couple tie games mixed in.  They will take on the Detroit Tigers on Monday afternoon in Lakeland, Florida.   

The Mets lose a high scoring game to the St. Louis Cardinals

The New York Mets were defeated by the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday afternoon.  The game took place at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie, Florida and the final score was 14-9.  Bartolo Colon started for the Mets and didn't pitch well at all.  There weren't many good pitching performances from the Mets.  Lucas Duda had two hits, Juan Lagares had two RBI, Danny Muno had two hits and Kevin Plawecki had two RBI to lead the offense. 

Colon pitched 3 2/3 innings giving up six hits and four runs with a walk and two strikeouts.  Jerry Blevins pitched to one batter and retired him, Gabriel Ynoa pitched an inning giving up three hits and three runs and Stolmy Pimentel pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up three hits and four runs with a strikeout.  Josh Smoker pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up three hits and two runs with one of them being earned and he struck out two, Jim Henderson pitched an inning giving up a hit and he struck out one and Addison Reed pitched an inning giving up three hits and a run with two strikeouts. 

Curtis Granderson had a hit, Roger Bernadina had an RBI and Neil Walker had a hit.  Yoenis Cespedes had a hit, Lagares had a hit, two RBI and drew a walk and Duda had two hits.  Wilmer Flores had an RBI and drew a walk, Travis d'Arnaud had a hit and an RBI and Johnny Monell drew a walk.  Michael Conforto had a hit and an RBI, Ty Kelly drew a walk and Eric Campbell had a hit and drew a walk.  Muno had two hits, Plawecki had a hit and two RBI including a homerun.  The Mets were 5-16 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base.  Campbell committed an error. 

In the first Flores hit a sac fly giving the Mets a 1-0 lead.  d'Arnaud hit an RBI single to make it a 2-0 game.  In the second Anthony Garcia hit an RBI triple to cut the lead to 2-1.  In the bottom of the second Plawecki hit a two run homerun to push the lead to 4-1 Mets.  In the third Randal Grichuk hit an RBI single to cut the lead to 4-2.  Brandon Moss hit a two run homerun and the game was tied at four.  In the bottom of the third Conforto hit an RBI single to make it 5-4 Mets.  Plawecki reached on a fielding error and a run scored to make it a 6-4 game.  In the fifth Moss hit a two run double and the game was tied at six.  Brayan Pena hit a sac fly to give the Cardinals their first lead at 7-6 and in the sixth they extended that lead to 8-6 on a Carson Kelly solo homerun.  Randal Grichuk hit a three run homerun and it was 11-6 Cardinals.  In the seventh Jacob Wilson hit a two run homerun to push the lead to 13-6 and in the bottom of the seventh Bernadina hit a sac fly to cut the lead to 13-7.  Lagares hit a two run single and it was 13-9 Cardinals.  In the ninth Nick Plummer hit an RBI single to make it 14-9 Cardinals and that would be the final score of the game. 

The Mets improved to 4-5 on the spring and they have a couple of tie games also.  They will play the Miami Marlins on Sunday afternoon at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida.