The Mets opened the series with a 10-2 win over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night at Citi Field.
Here are some takeaways…
– The Mets’ offense struggled to get much of anything going during the final three games of their roadtrip in Arizona, but they generated plenty of early traffic against Jack Flaherty. They were able to chase the struggling right-hander from the ballgame after just 3.2 innings as they scratched runs across in the second, third, and fourth.
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– New York took advantage of some shoddy Detroit defense to put this one away in the sixth, seven, and eighth.
– There were some concerns that the Mets rushed A.J. Ewing to the big-league level, but the youngster certainly looked the part in his debut. He reached three different times across four plate appearances, drawing three walks (the last of which was with the bases loaded), stealing a base, tripling home a run, and scoring two.
Ewing ripped the triple at 104.1 mph to right and went home-to-third in 11.64 seconds.
– He wasn’t the only Mets youngster to enjoy a strong day, as Carson Benge continued his red-hot stretch at the plate. Bumped back up the the leadoff spot, the sweet-swinging lefty picked up two more hits, including an opposite-field single to drive home a run in the bottom of the third.
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– Francisco Alvarez reached twice with a run-scoring fielders choice and a double, but the backstop was forced to leave the game in the bottom of the sixth after appearing to twist his knee on a swing attempt. Luis Torrens took over behind the plate, and Alvarez is set to undergo imaging on Wednesday.
– Bo Bichette reached three times after his hitless series in Arizona, Juan Soto snapped his two hits of his own.
– It was a bit of an up-and-down outing for Freddy Peralta, but the right-hander did a nice job of limiting the damage. He threw 21 pitches in a scoreless first, then 27 more in the second as the Tigers struck for two runs on a Dillon Dingler solo homer and Spencer Torkelson sacrifice fly to open the first lead of the game.
Peralta gave up a leadoff double in the third, then finally found his groove. He retired the next eight batters he faced before giving up a two-out single in the fifth. Riley Greene followed that with a single of his own, and Peralta did a good job backing up Benge’s errant throw to third, catching the runner trying to score.
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He came back for the sixth at 89 pitches and finished his night by striking out two in an easy frame. Peralta barred down when he needed to, keeping the Tigers to 0-for-6 with RISP as he allowed just the two runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out seven across six-full innings.
– Brooks Raley did a tremendous job working out of one-out traffic in the seventh, picking up a strikeout and popout to strand a pair in scoring position. Austin Warren ate the final two innings of the ballgame, saving the Mets’ bullpen for a second straight night following the off day.
Game MVP: A.J. Ewing
Ewing provided the exact spark the Mets were hoping for in his big-league debut.
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Highlights
What’s next
The Mets will look to lock-up the series win with Christian Scott on the mound against Framber Valdez.
The action gets underway at 7:10 p.m. on SNY.
