The New York Mets defeat the Houston Astros 6-2

The New York Mets defeated the Houston Astros by the score of 6-2 on Wednesday night. The game took place at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Jon Niese made the start in his final tune-up before Opening Day and pitched well. The bullpen was pretty good. Marlon Byrd and John Buck led the Mets offense. 
Niese pitched 4 1/3 innings picking up the win. He gave up two hits and no runs with two walks and seven strikeouts, Scott Rice pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up a walk and two strikeouts, Pedro Feliciano pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout and Scott Atchison pitched an inning giving up a hit and two runs with one of them being earned. He walked one and struck out one and Bobby Parnell pitched a perfect inning striking out the side.

Jordany Valdespin had two hits, Josh Rodriguez had an RBI and drew a walk and Colin Cowgill drew a walk. Ike Davis had two hits, Byrd had two hits and three RBI and Dustin Lawley had a hit. Buck had three hits, Zach Lutz had two hits and an RBI and Ruben Tejada drew a walk. Byrd, Lutz, Lawley and Davis each hit a double and Byrd hit a homerun. The Mets were 3-15 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. Valdespin committed an error and Rice had a pickoff.

Edgar Gonzalez took the loss pitching three innings and giving up four hits and three runs with a walk and two strikeouts. Rhiner Cruz pitched an inning giving up two hits, Jose Veras pitched a perfect inning with three strikeouts and Xavier Cedeno pitched an inning giving up three hits and two runs with a strikeout. Hector Ambriz pitched an inning giving up a hit and striking out two and Colton Cain pitched an inning giving up two hits and a run with two walks and a strikeout.

Brandon Barnes drew a walk, Carlos Correa had a hit and an RBI and Brandon Laird had a hit. Matt Dominguez drew a walk, George Springer drew a walk and Jason Jaramillo had a hit. Delino Deshields drew a walk and the Astros were 0-7 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base. Correa had a stolen base and Barnes was caught stealing, Correa committed an error.

Byrd grounded into a double play in the first inning and a run scored giving the Mets a 1-0 lead. Byrd hit a two run double in the third to give the Mets a 3-0 lead. Byrd hit a solo homerun and Lutz hit an RBI double in the sixth and it was 5-0 Mets. The Astros broke through in the eighth and scored their only two runs. Correa grounded out to score a run and a wild pitch scored the second run. The Mets scored the final run of the game in the bottom of the eighth. Rodriguez had an RBI walk and the final score was 6-2 Mets.

The Mets record improved to 14-13 on the spring and the Astros record fell to 13-15. The Mets will play at the Washington Nationals on Thursday afternoon and Houston will play at Atlanta on Thursday afternoon.