New York Mets lose both games of a split squad

The New York Mets were defeated by the Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros on Thursday afternoon.  The Mets played the Red Sox at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Florida and the final score was 4-1 and they played the Houston Astros at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie and lost 8-5.  Matt Harvey started in the game against the Astros and didn't pitch well at all and Logan Verrett started the game against the Red Sox and pitched very well.  The Mets offense only managed five hits in the game against Boston and Curtis Granderson and Alejandra De Aza each had two hits in the game against the Astros. 

Harvey pitched three innings giving up seven hits and six runs with four walks and two strikeouts.  Beck Wheeler pitched an inning giving up a run and three walks with a strikeout, Jeurys Familia pitched an inning giving up a hit and Antonio Bastardo pitched two innings giving up a hit and a run with a walk.  Jim Henderson pitched an inning giving up a walk and he struck out two and Jerry Blevins pitched an inning with a strikeout. 

Granderson had two hits, Ty Kelly drew two walks and David Wright drew a walk.  Jeff McNeil had two hits and an RBI, John Mora had two hits and an RBI and Dominic Smith had a hit and an RBI.  Phillip Evans had a hit and two RBI, De Aza had two hits and Derrik Gibson had a hit.  McNeil and Evans each hit a double and Granderson hit a triple and the Mets were 4-11 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.  Gomez had a passed ball. 

In the second A.J. Reed hit an inside-the-park homerun to give the Astros a 1-0 lead.  George Springer had an RBI walk to make it 2-0, Marwin Gonzalez hit a sac fly and it was 3-0 Astros still in the second inning.  In the third Reed hit an RBI double to extend the lead to 4-0 and Derek Fisher hit a two run triple to make it 6-0.  In the fourth a wild pitch pushed the lead to 7-0 and in the seventh Roberto Pena hit a sac fly to make it 8-0 Astros.  In the bottom of the eighth McNeill hit an RBI double to get the Mets on the board and Mora hit an RBI single to cut the lead to 8-2.  Smith hit an RBI single and Evans hit a two run double to cut the lead to 8-5 but that was as close as it got.  The final score would be 8-5 Astros. 

In the game against the Red Sox Verrett started and pitched four innings giving up two hits and no runs with no walks and a strikeout.  Sean Gilmartin pitched three innings giving up four hits and two runs with a walk and four strikeouts and Erik Goeddel pitched an inning giving up three hits and two runs. 

Eric Campbell had a hit and drew a walk, Kevin Plawecki had a hit and Travis Taijeron had a hit.  Matt Reynolds had a hit and an RBI and Patrick Biondi had a hit.  Taijeron hit a double and the Mets were 1-5 with runners in scoring position and left four men on base.  Campbell had a stolen base. 

In the fifth Reynolds hit an RBI single to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.  In the sixth Xander Bogaerts hit a sac fly to tie the game at one.  David Ortiz hit an RBI single to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.  In the eighth Bogaerts hit a solo homerun to push the Red Sox lead to 3-1 and they finished the scoring on an RBI single by Deven Marrero in the eighth.  The Red Sox won the game 4-1.