Mets Fall to Astros 5-3 in 10 Innings
The Mets’ offense had been red-hot coming into Wednesday’s matchup with the Houston Astros at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie. New York came into the game off of a 10-0 win over the Marlins on Tuesday, and had scored 21 runs over their last three games. Despite the recent hot streak, the Mets’ bats were kept quiet in a 5-3 loss in 10 innings. Nearly all of the Mets’ offense came in the sixth inning, when a two-out rally lead to a game-tying three-run home run from Pete Alonso.
Carlos Carrasco made his first start of the spring on Wednesday, and despite the overall numbers not looking great, it was an encouraging outing. Carrasco struggled with first innings in 2021, and it looked like his first inning of the spring wouldn’t be much different. His first pitch of the game was popped up into right field and fell perfectly in between Eduardo Escobar playing second base and Starling Marte in right field for a single. Two pitches later, a cross up between Carrasco and catcher James McCann led to a passed ball that moved Astros center fielder Jose Siri to second. After a fly out and a walk, Carrasco got a double play from Alex Bregman to get out the inning with no damage.
Carrasco was on the verge of a clean second inning before Francisco Lindor cut in front of Escobar turning what should’ve been the third out into a single. Carrasco was able to retire the side on the very next pitch. He ran into trouble in the third inning when his former Cleveland teammate Michael Brantley hit a long two-run home run to put the Astros ahead.
In the fourth, Yordan Alvarez hit a fly ball to left field that carried with the wind over the left field fence to give the Astros a 3-0 lead. After another bloop single, Carrasco retired the next three batters and struck out the final two to close his night. He finished by allowing three earned runs on six hits and a walk while striking out three Astros in his first four innings of the spring.
Adam Ottavino came into the game in the fifth inning and made quick work of what will likely be the top of the Astros Opening Day lineup, retiring the side in order, which included two strikeouts. Drew Smith followed in the sixth with another 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout of his own.
To this point, the Mets bats had not put up much of a fight against the Astros’ pitching staff. With two outs in bottom of the sixth, the Mets had just two singles from Marte and J.D. Davis. Marte started the sixth inning rally with his second hard-hit single of the game. Lindor followed with a rocket single of his own, and both runners moved up when the Astros left fielder misplayed the ball. Coming to bat as the tying run, Alonso hit a three-run home run to tie the game.
The game remained tied through nine innings, as Miguel Castro, Alex Claudio and Colin Holderman all threw scoreless innings. In the tenth, Stephen Nogosek broke the run of shutout innings from the bullpen when he allowed a two-run home run to second baseman Franklin Barreto that would ultimately decide the game.
Despite the lack of overall offense, Marte contributed two hard hits and his second stolen base in as many games while Lindor’s single brought his average up to .476 and his OPS to 1.663.
Player of the Game: Pete Alonso
Alonso hasn’t gotten off to the best start this spring, hitting just .200 coming into the day, but his clutch home run on Wednesday night showed he is getting closer to being Opening Day ready. No stranger to the spotlight, Alonso came to the plate with the Mets needing their first baseman to come up with a big hit, and turned on a 2-1 slider to tie the game. Alonso coming through in a big moment is a good sign that he will be ready for April 7.
“I’m almost there,” Alonso said in a mid-game interview with SNY. “We’ve got some time left, so I’m really excited to finish the spring strong, and I’m really pumped up for the season.”
On Deck:
The Mets’ next game is Thursday at 6:10 PM ET against the Washington Nationals at Clover Park. Taijuan Walker will be making his second start of the spring, and the game will be televised on SNY.
The post Mets Fall to Astros 5-3 in 10 Innings first appeared on Metsmerized Online.