Brandon Sproat and Edwin Diaz got touched up for two runs each, and the Mets‘ bats were held in check in a 5-1 loss to the Houston Astros on Thursday night in Port St. Lucie.
Here are the takeaways…
– Sproat surrendered a first-inning run when Jon Singleton dumped the ball into centerfield off the end of his bat (74.7 mph exit velocity) for a two-out, RBI single that dropped in front of Jose Siri in center.
The young right-hander allowed another soft-contact single to start the second, but Francisco Alvarez would gun down Quincy Hamilton trying to steal second. That out was sandwiched between Sproat tallying a pair of strikeouts, on a cutter looking and a fastball swinging. But his night came to an end in the third as he was chased by a walk and a sharply hit single to right to cover the corners with nobody down.
Sproat, who was among the dozen players sent to minor league camp this week, was dinged for two runs on four hits and a walk in two innings on 35 pitches (23 strikes). He used his sinker (16 pitches) and fastball (10) and generated eight called strikes and whiffs on those two, with the heater sitting between 94.1 and 97.7 mph.
– Diaz issued a leadoff five-pitch walk to start the third. The closer, in his spring training debut, threw balls on his first five fastballs before finally getting a strike on a pitch that saw Chas McCormick steal second without a throw.
McCormick took off for third with one out and Diaz missed on the slider by five feet on a pitch that hit reached the backstop. On the very next pitch, Brendan Rodgers rocketed a hanging slider (107.7 mph) that one-hopped the wall in left for a double. Jacob Melton then smacked the next pitch (108.4 mph) for a single to right that scored a run as Juan Soto‘s throw wasn’t handled by Alvarez at the plate.
After Melton swiped second, Diaz recovered to get Luis Guillorme to pop out to shallow left, but Francisco Lindor called and failed to come up with the drifting pop-up for an error. That ended Diaz’s night: allowing two runs on two hits with a walk throwing 10 strikes out of 19 pitches (14 fastballs, five sliders) with a wild pitch, and recording just one out. The heater sat between 94.2 and 96.9 mph, but eight were out of the zone.
– Mark Vientos smashed a two-out infield hit to the hole at short when Guillorme made a diving stop but couldn’t make the throw. He yanked a slider off the end of the bat for a two-out single to left in the third. Vientos continued the good night taking an up-and-away sinker into right field for his third hit of the night to put two on and nobody out in the fifth.
On the hot corner, Vientos made a nice play fielding a good bounce to start a 5-3 double-play, one batter after slightly mistiming a jump on a hot liner (108.2 mph) that hit the heel of his glove.
– Lindor fell behind 0-2 his first time up before working a walk. He put a charge into a ball his second time up (101.5 mph) but came up with a 376-foot flyout in the tough Port St. Lucie ballpark. (Statcast gave it a .630 xBA.) Lindor put the Mets on the board with a shot that went for an RBI single when third baseman Cam Smith olé’d it.
– Soto hit a hard grounder his first at-bat but was robbed of a hit by a diving play at second. After walking on four pitches in the third, Soto faced tough Houston lefty Josh Hader, but a 101.6 mph grounder up the middle was snared by a sliding Guillorme (robbing a .530 xBA) to end the fourth.
On a blustery night, Soto got fooled when a hot shot (100.8 mph) came right at him in right field, and as he retreated to the warning track, the ball kicked off his glove as he reached back over his head. It went for an RBI double.
– Alvarez worked a walk his first time up but struck out on a half swing on a breaking pitch away to leave the bases loaded in the third. The catcher went down swinging again on a slider (this time it was over the plate) with two men on in the fifth to finish.
– Pete Alonso went down swinging in the first on a high heater and in the third on a slow sweeper up in the zone after a long battle. But he took the first pitch he saw in the fifth to center for a rocket of a single up the middle (108.9 mph) to finish 1-for-3.
– Jesse Winker tapped out to first to strand a pair in the first. After falling behind 0-2, he worked a walk to load the bases in the third. The DH got yet another chance with men on base with nobody out in the fifth but struck out looking at a slow slider.
– Jeff McNeil hit a ball hard (97.6 mph) his first time up, but came away with a flyout to center. He finished 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout.
Game MVP: Mark Vientos
The third baseman was the lone bright spot for the Mets as he went 3-for-3 with three pieces of good hitting.
Highlights
Upcoming schedule
The Mets head over to West Palm Beach to face the Washington Nationals for a 6:05 p.m. first pitch on Friday.
