On day two of Spring Training, the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals finished in a 3-3 tie. Jake Marisnick‘s solo home run, Ryan Cordell‘s double and a J.D. Davis sacrifice fly accounted for the three Mets runs.
I think Jake Marisnick will fit in just fine ? #LGM pic.twitter.com/YcLF93lTFt
— MetsAvenue (@MetsAvenue) February 23, 2020
Like most early Spring Training games, the big league ready arms threw the first half of the game. Steven Matz threw the first inning for the Mets and allowed a leadoff home run to Harrison Bader. Matz settled in to retire the following three batters and struck out one. His much-improved charge-up looked good during his one inning of work.
Bullpen Dominance
The slimmed-down Jeurys Familia took over after Matz in the second inning. He worked around a couple of baserunners to pitch a scoreless second. Familia is back to throwing his sinker, slider, and splitter full time and featured each of them during his inning. He threw a couple of sinkers in the high 90s but mostly worked in the 93-95 range.
"I feel like a kid compared to last year"
Jeurys Familia feels a difference after losing 30 pounds in the offseason pic.twitter.com/uBcEWBqbKb
— SNY (@SNYtv) February 23, 2020
Brad Brach took over for the third and allowed a couple of baserunners but also struck out two. He was throwing in the high 80s, but his change-up looked in midseason form. The double Brach allowed mostly had to do with Tim Tebow playing left field. It was a tough play, but most Mets outfielders make the play.
Robert Gsellman put together a quick but eventful inning. It started with an Andres Gimenez error, followed by possible double play turned into a fielders choice, and the final batter flew out into a double play on a failed hit & run. Tyler Bashlor‘s one inning of work featured a strikeout, and his curveball was his best pitch with his velocity sitting at 93-95.
Minor league relievers finished off the rest of the game with Franklyn Kilome as the only one to allow runs. He allowed a line drive two-run homer to Edmundo Sosa, which tied the game. Velocities from most pitchers on both sides seemed lower than usual. It either had to do with pitchers still getting themselves game-ready along with the radar gun reading not playing as key a role it does in the regular season.
It was a solid day for the key Mets relievers, which will be something to build on as the first full week of games starts. We still have not seen Edwin Diaz pitch, and his Spring debut will be the most anticipated of Spring Training.