Just Mets

The Mets won two games on Thursday, defeating the Cardinals 7-2 at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, and 3-1 against the Astros in Port St. Lucie. Here are my takeaways from the two games this afternoon…

Lucas Duda struggled in his test against left-handed pitching.

It’s early, but Duda’s troubles against southpaws are certainly no secret at this point. He did draw a walk against Cardinals LHP Jaime Garcia in his first plate appearance, but he struck out in his next plate appearance against Garcia and flew out against LHP Sam Freeman in the seventh.

Duda is going to get every opportunity to succeed against lefties early in the season, but it’s clear the Mets can turn quickly to Michael Cuddyer and platoon Duda if the problem doesn’t improve.

The left-handed reliever candidates pitched well.

All four of the left-handed relief candidates pitches in these two games, and all of them pitched well. Dario Alvarez didn’t allow a run in 1 1/3 innings, Scott Rice got a lefty out, and both Jack Leathersich and Sean Gilmartin got their individual batters out. Hopefully things are starting to even out for these guys, who have had a rough go of it over the first two weeks of camp.

Dillon Gee was in rhythm.

Maybe it was because he’s just more comfortable starting, or he now has certainty to his role, but Gee had command, good tempo, and good control of everything against the Astros today. He was clearly working on his change-up especially, but outside of a few walks looked like he was in complete control from the first pitch he threw on Thursday.

Rafael Montero made a case for himself.

The stars seem to be aligning for Montero to make the team out of camp as a reliever, but he showed a couple of things on Thursday. He showed he could come into a game in relief and throw strikes. But, he also showed he could be stretched out for some long relief or a starter if necessary.

The club was concerned with his inability to throw strikes when he was called up last summer, considering he had always been known as a strike thrower in the minor leagues. Today his positive qualities were on display, as he was in the mid-90s with his fastball, was mixing in his change-up and breaking ball, and was throwing strikes with all of his pitches. Very good steps for the promising right-hander.

Other notes from Thursday:

Jon Niese allowed only one run in four innings of work against St. Louis, throwing 46 of his 67 pitches for strikes.

Wilmer Flores continued his hot spring, homering and driving in another run on a sac fly against the Cardinals.

Michael Cuddyer and Curtis Granderson homered on Thursday. Granderson hit an opposite field home run against the Astros in Port St. Lucie. He did not hit a single home run the other way during the 2014 season.