Just Mets

The Mets defeated the New York Yankees 6-0 in Port St. Lucie on Sunday afternoon. Here are my takeaways from today’s game…

Matt Harvey is back.

Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Harvey is back. After pitching 5.2 innings, allowing no runs, two hits, no walks and striking out four. In 12.2 innings pitched this Spring, Harvey is now sporting a minuscule ERA of 1.26, this after missing the last 19 months due to Tommy John surgery.

Harvey has looked great all Spring, and that continued today. His pitches were crisp, his breaking ball was tight, his fastball blew people away and these Yankees hitters never had a chance. Harvey’s pitch limit going into the game was 75, and he never even reached that, being taken out with two outs in the 5th at only 60 pitches. Harvey could’ve easily gone another inning, but Terry Collins wanted some of the other pitchers to get in the game.

Harvey will likely get another two starts in Spring Training, but I’m already looking forward to the regular season.

Lucas Duda is making progress vs. left-handed pitching.

There’s been a lot of talk about Lucas Duda’s struggles vs. lefties this Spring. Even last season, when Duda had his break-out season hitting 30 home runs and driving home 92 runs, his challenges were noted, as only two of his 30 home runs came against left-handed pitching.

This Spring, after coming off of an oblique injury, Duda has gotten off to a bit of a slow start, especially when it comes to facing lefties, as going into the weekend he was 0-for-7 in such at-bats. However, in the last two games Duda has gone 2-for-4 vs. left-handers David Price and CC Sabathia, including his home run off of CC in today’s game.

David Wright’s new swing is paying dividends.

As I noted in this feature on Saturday, David Wright has a new swing this season, and it appears to be paying off big-time. After blasting a home run to center field in the Mets win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday, Wright took CC Sabathia deep to right field, vintage David, on his two-run home run in the third inning.

The Mets are poised to have a much improved season in 2015, with some hoping for a potential postseason run. I expect this team to play meaningful September games this year, but if Wright is able to revert to the David Wright of old, watch out for the Metropolitans.

Other notes from Sunday:

Juan Lagares continued his very strong Spring, going 2-for-3 with a lead-off, inside-the-park home run in the 1st.

Left-handed reliever Sean Gilmartin pitched 1.2 hitless innings, walking a batter and striking out one.

Eric Campbell may be solidifying a bench role with the team, hitting a pinch-hit home run in 8th inning of today’s game. Campbell is batting .250 in Grapefruit League play.

The potential replacement for Daniel Murphy at second base, Ruben Tejada, came off the bench in the 8th inning today and drilled a pinch-hit, RBI double, raising his Spring batting average to .303.

The Mets hit four home runs on Sunday, accounting for five of their six total runs.