Just Mets

The Mets won their fifth consecutive spring contest against the Nationals on Tuesday, shutting them out by the score of 2-0 at Space Coast Stadium in Viera. Here are my takeaways from Tuesday’s game…

Jon Niese closed the book on an awesome spring.

Niese has struggled with some arm fatigue this spring, but he pretty much closed the door on any health problems from last year with a spectacular spring. His delivery looks better, he is now getting more over-the-top on his curveball, and most importantly he threw strikes right out of the gate. He walked only two batters and had a 1.65 ERA in 16 1/3 innings this spring. I’d say he’s ready to roll for the regular season.

Enough about Lucas Duda against left-handed pitching.

Duda singled in his first at-bat against a tough lefty today in Gio Gonzalez, which was his fourth consecutive hit against left-handed pitching. So, that’s Gio, CC Sabathia and David Price he’s been able to solve this spring, not to mention the other success he’s had against southpaws.

I guess we can stop talking about this until it becomes a problem again. Hopefully, it doesn’t…

Ruben Tejada is still having a nice camp.

Tejada drove in a run on Tuesday, marking his 12th run batted in this spring. That ties him with Curtis Granderson for the team lead this spring, not to mention he leads the club with seven doubles as well. He’s quietly had a solid month for the Mets, showing he can be a capable utility infielder for them heading into the season.

Other notes from Tuesday:

New Mets lefty Jerry Blevins faced one batter, Bryce Harper, and struck him out.

John Mayberry Jr. hit his fourth home run of the spring in the sixth inning, marking the Mets 38th home run in 29 games this spring.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis’ struggles continued on Tuesday with two strikeouts in three at-bats – he now has 12 strikeouts in his last ten games.

The Mets went 5-1 against the Nationals this spring – they went 4-15 against them in the regular season in 2014.