Francisco Alvarez goes deep as Mets cruise past Cardinals 6-1

The New York Mets put up 14 hits and scored in 4 different innings, beat the Cardinals 6-1 at Clover Park on March 10, and got a clean 4-inning start from David Peterson to go with it. The offense did the heavy lifting, and Francisco Alvarez provided the signature moment.

The Cardinals drew first blood in the top of the 1st on a Nelson Velázquez solo shot to left-center. The Mets answered in the bottom half. Jorge Polanco singled, moved to second on a Bo Bichette groundout, and scored on a 2-out line drive single to left by Brett Baty. Tied at 1.

Francisco Alvarez Breaks It Open

The 3rd inning is where the game turned. Polanco led it off with a solo homer to left-center, his 1st as a Met. 3 batters later, after a Bichette single and a Baty force out, Alvarez launched a 2-run shot 439 feet to center field. Cardinals starter Jared Shuster had allowed 1 run in the 1st 2 innings. He left the 3rd down 4-1 and did not return.

For Alvarez, coming off a spring hampered by hand surgery, the homer landed with some weight behind it. 2 hits, 2 RBI, a run scored. He lined out sharply in his only other at-bat before exiting for defensive sub purposes in the 6th. The ball travels when he’s right, and today it did.

The Mets added another run in the 4th inning of work from Peterson before the lefty departed. Peterson allowed 1 run on 2 hits, walked nobody, and struck out 3 in 4 innings. Brooks Raley worked a clean 5th. Then Christian Scott, in his 2nd spring appearance since returning from Tommy John surgery, threw 3 scoreless innings, allowed 1 hit, walked 4, and struck out 4. The walk total is the one number to track as he builds back up, but the arm was sitting 94-96 mph and missing bats.

Baty added a 5th-inning RBI single off reliever Edwin Núñez, scoring Jackson Cluff after he reached on a walk and took 3rd on a wild pitch. Ji Hwan Bae tripled home a run in the 6th to push the lead to 5. The Mets finished with 14 hits on the afternoon. Baty went 2-for-3 with 2 RBI. Polanco went 2-for-2 with a walk. Alvarez, Baty, Polanco, and Bae all had multi-hit games.

Scott’s next outing and his walk rate are the things to watch from the pitching side. On offense, how Alvarez’s bat shows up the rest of spring will set the tone for conversations about the lineup’s ceiling heading into April.