The Mets are at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter to face the St. Louis Cardinals today at 1:30 PM. Here’s what I am looking for this afternoon…
It’s #HarveyDay again.
Matt Harvey is expected to throw 80 pitches in his fifth Grapefruit League start today. He was fabulous in his last start against the Yankees only one hit in 5 2/3 innings with no walks and four strikeouts on Sunday, extending his scoreless streak to 9 2/3 innings this spring. His command has been spectacular this spring, so it will be interesting to see if he can maintain this as his outings become more stretched out.
Harvey is hitting eighth in the lineup.
Terry Collins is experimenting with a proposed configuration which has the pitcher hitting eighth, an on-base guy ninth (Daniel Muno), and run producers at the top of the lineup in Curtis Granderson and David Wright. It’s not clear how much the Mets will do this over the course of the season, but it’s something they did last year on an infrequent basis, therefore it’s worth watching to see if this alignment can be productive.
Wilmer Flores is playing a day game after a night game.
Something which would ordinarily be insignificant has meaning for Flores today, as it shows the pain in his bruised foot is at least tolerable at the moment. It’s important he get as many live reps as possible at shortstop as Opening Day closes in, and this shows the condition is improving and he’s rebounding from his injury nicely.
Jeurys Familia is working for a second consecutive day.
As I wrote this morning, Familia’s spring hasn’t been a pretty sight. But after being roughed up yesterday, Terry Collins is going to follow Harvey with Familia this afternoon, testing him on back-to-back days.
Today’s game will not be aired locally on TV or radio, but can be seen on MLB.tv.
Just Mets 