The Mets defeated the Yankees by a score of 7-2 at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa on Wednesday afternoon. Here are my takeaways from today’s game…
Rafael Montero made a statement.
Okay, color me impressed. It has been reported this week that Dillon Gee isn’t as big of a lock as we thought to replace Zack Wheeler in the starting rotation, and that Rafael Montero still has a shot to make it. Today, he made an extremely strong impression.
In his four innings of work on Wednesday, Montero allowed a single run on three hits and no walks while striking out for Yankee hitters. Throughout his minor league career, Montero had been known for his impeccable control, but struggled keeping the ball in the strike zone in his stints in the major leagues last season.
Of Montero’s 60 pitches today, he threw 41 of them for strikes. He was fantastic today, and a performance like this could at least prolong the discussion for who should win the fifth starter job in the Mets rotation.
Juan Lagares isn’t only hitting, but he’s hitting for power.
Juan Lagares is having a sterling spring at the plate, hitting .395 in Grapefruit League play. Lagares is already a stalwart on this ball club because of his defense in center field, but after hitting .282 in 2014 and lighting it up this March, it appears that he really has the chance to be something special.
Not only has Lagares been raking this month, but his hits have been big ones. Of his 17 hits so far, nine of them have gone for extra bases, and two of them have gone for home runs, including his one today off of flame throwing Yankees reliever Dellin Betances.
Sean Gilmartin did what he had to do.
If it seems like we’ve been talking about the left-handed reliever situation on a daily basis, that’s because we have, and that won’t be changing anytime soon. Sean Gilmartin got another shot to distinguish himself on the mound today and did his job, retiring all four batters he faced in 1.1 innings of work, two of them on strikeouts.
Gilmartin faced three left-handed hitters on Wednesday and retired all of them–Stephen Drew, Didi Gregorius and Brett Gardner, all of whom are major leaguers.
Other notes from Wednesday:
The Mets went 2-0 against the Yankees this spring, outscoring them 13-2 in the two games.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis is ice cold at the plate. He’s 1-for-his-last-12 with nine strikeouts.
John Mayberry Jr. (.457) continued his strong month, homering off of Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka in the 4th inning.
Shortstop prospect Matt Reynolds started at second base, going 1-for-3 with a double off of Tanaka, and scoring a run as well.
Travis d’Arnaud had a strong day offensively, going 2-for-3 with an RBI single.
The Mets have scored five or more runs in 12 of their 23 spring games.
Just Mets 