The New York Mets win a pair of split squad games

The New York Mets defeated the St. Louis Cardinals and the Houston Astros on Thursday afternoon.  The final scores were 7-3 and 3-1 and the games took place at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie, Florida and at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida.  Jon Niese started the away game and pitched well and Dillon Gee pitched well in the home game.  Curtis Granderson, Michael Cuddyer and Travis d'Arnaud each had a hit and an RBI in the home game.  Wilmer Flores had a couple of RBI and David Wright a couple of hits in the home game. 

Niese pitched four innings giving up three hits and a run with no walks and six strikeouts.  He picked up his second win of the spring.  Dario Alvarez pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up a walk, Zach Thornton pitched 1 1/3 perfect innings with a strikeout and Scott Rice pitched to one batter and retired him.  Jon Velasquez pitched an inning giving up a hit and a run and Chase Bradford pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout.  In the home game Gee pitched 3 2/3 innings giving up two hits and no runs with two walks and picked up his first win of the spring.  Jack Leathersich pitched to one batter and struck him out, Rafael Montero pitched 3 2/3 innings giving up two hits and a run with two strikeouts and Sean Gilmartin pitched to one batter and struck him out.  Carlos Torres picked up the save pitching a perfect inning with a strikeout. 

Wilmer Flores had a hit and two RBI, T.J. Rivera had a hit and two RBI and Daniel Murphy had a hit.  Phillip Evans had a hit, David Wright had two hits and an RBI and Dustin Lawley had a hit.  Lucas Duda drew a walk, John Mayberry Jr. had an RBI and Travis Taijeron had a hit.  Eric Campbell had a hit, Kyle Johnson drew a walk and Anthony Recker drew a walk.  Johnny Monell drew a walk, Alex Castellanos had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk and Campbell and Lawley each hit a double.  Castellanos hit a triple and Flores hit a homerun.  The Mets were 2-9 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.  Evans was caught stealing. 

In the home game Curtis Granderson had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk, Cesar Puello drew a walk and Cuddyer had a hit and an RBI.  d'Arnaud had a hit and an RBI, Kirk Nieuwenhuis had a hit and Cory Vaughn drew a walk.  Brandon Allen had a hit, Matt Reynolds had a hit and d'Arnaud hit a double.  Cuddyer and Granderson each hit a homerun.  The Mets were 1-7 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base.  Puello, Muno and Vaughn each had a stolen base.  Muno committed an error. 

Cuddyer hit a solo homerun in the first and Granderson in the second to give the Mets a 2-0 lead and in the sixth d'Arnaud hit an RBI double to give the Mets a 3-0 lead in the sixth.  In the seventh Jonathan Villar hit an RBI double to make it a 3-1 game.  The final score was 3-1. 

In the road game against the Cardinals Mayberry Jr. hit a sacrifice fly in the first and Flores hit a solo homerun in the third to make it 2-0 Mets.  In the bottom of the third Matt Carpenter hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 2-1.  In the fifth Wright hit an RBI single to make it 3-1 Mets adn in the seventh Castellanos hit an RBI triple to extend the lead to 4-1 Mets.  Flores hit a sacrifice fly and it was 5-1 Mets and then Rivera hit a two run single in the eighth to make it 7-1.  In the eighth Peter Bourjos hit a solo homerun and it was a 7-2 game which was the final score. 

The Mets will take on the St. Louis Cardinals in Port St. Lucie on Friday afternoon.