Mets Enjoy the Comforts of Home
The checklist stretches from David Aardsma to Todd Zeile: 154 main leaguers who’ve performed for each the Mets and the Yankees. The newest, David Robertson, is glad to be again on the town.
“It’s different — you get a big crowd all the time, and then you get a good group traveling on the road with you,” Robertson stated after serving to the Mets to a 5-2 victory over the San Diego Padres at Citi Field on Wednesday. “I like that. New Yorkers want to win. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on — they want to win, and they’re going to show up.”
The followers confirmed up in power for the Mets’ first homestand of the season, simply as they did for the primary two collection at Yankee Stadium. Each crew opened its house schedule by going 4-2 in its homestand, with attendance topping 30,000 every time. The pitch clock enormously improved the enchantment of the product: Only one sport in every ballpark reached three hours.
Baseball was exhibiting off on Wednesday — 77 levels at sport time, with out even a touch of April’s normal ethereal chill by Flushing Bay. There was sunshine, slugging and steals: a missile to the distant Shea Bridge by the Padres’ Juan Soto, after which blasts by Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso of the Mets — or the “go-go Mets,” as Manager Buck Showalter known as them after his crew stole three bases Wednesday.
The Mets have 14 steals (tied with Pittsburgh for fourth in Major League Baseball via Wednesday) and have been caught solely as soon as. The Mets had 62 steals final season, rating twenty third within the majors. If you guessed that Showalter — grasp of preparation — would discover a solution to capitalize on the hurry-up guidelines, you have been proper.
“The biggest rule that’s made it tougher to hold runners is you can’t hold the ball and stop them from cheating in their lead,” Showalter stated. “It makes a lot of runners into stolen-base threats that weren’t in the past.”
On Wednesday, Tommy Pham stole second base with two outs within the second inning and scored on Brandon Nimmo’s double. Mark Canha stole second within the third, and Jeff McNeil took second within the sixth, and every time, Padres starter Blake Snell walked the following hitter. A sooner sport is extra attention-grabbing.
“I’ve got three stolen bases already,” stated Nimmo, an on-base darling who managed simply three steals in 151 video games final season. “I’m not going to run just to run, but if the opportunity arises, yeah, we’ll take advantage of it. More so, you just want to take care of the guys that are being flippant about their times. If they don’t really care, you’ve got to take bags from those guys.”
The Mets left city after Wednesday’s sport with a 7-6 report. They will play their subsequent 10 video games in California, visiting the Oakland Athletics for 3, the Los Angeles Dodgers for 3 and the San Francisco Giants for 4. It is simply too early for a real learn on the crew, however the Mets recovered properly after their opening street journey ended with three consecutive losses in Milwaukee.
“We played really good team ball,” Alonso stated. “We pitched well, we played great defense, and I feel like overall we had great team at-bats — one through nine, we did a great job grinding down starting pitchers, getting deep into bullpens and capitalizing on opportunities. We’re going to get better as the season goes on, but going 4-2 was a good bounce-back.”
The ace right-hander Justin Verlander, signed as a substitute as soon as Jacob deGrom had departed for the Texas Rangers, didn’t fly with the crew; he’s heading to Florida as he works via shoulder irritation. Before he could make his Mets debut, Showalter stated, Verlander will want a few bullpen periods, a spherical of dwell batting observe, after which a minor league rehab sport.
That program appears prone to maintain Verlander out till early May — not late April, as he had hoped — however there isn’t any cause to hurry. There are six National League playoff spots, in spite of everything, and Tylor Megill has now received thrice in Verlander’s absence after working 5 innings on Wednesday.
Showalter used 4 relievers to complete up, figuring out all of them might relaxation earlier than the following sport on Friday. The star nearer, Edwin Díaz, was on web site however was nonetheless utilizing crutches after tearing the patellar tendon in his proper knee on the World Baseball Classic in March.
“The recovery’s eight months — some people do it before, some people do it after,” Díaz stated. “If we can keep doing what we’re doing right now — everything with the trainer, working hard, if the knee keeps responding to the testing, then I have to start running, I have to get on the mound, I have to start throwing — if everything goes well, I think I can be back sooner than eight months.”
That’s a protracted guidelines, so it’s comforting for the Mets to produce other veterans who’re conversant in late-inning conditions. Robertson has 159 profession saves, and one other former Yankee, Adam Ottavino, received the thirty fourth of his profession with a scoreless ninth on Wednesday.
With the Philadelphia Phillies final October, Robertson saved the World Series opener earlier than a raucous crowd in Houston, stranding the tying and successful runs on base. He approaches each look the identical manner, from his main league debut at Shea Stadium at 23 — a two-inning stint in aid of Darrell Rasner for the Yankees in June 2008 — via an April matinee at age 38.
“Last year I was throwing seventh, eighth, ninth inning, extras, whatever,” stated Robertson, who snuffed a rally within the seventh on Wednesday after which wiggled from a self-created jam within the eighth. “It’s all the same to me. You’ve just got to go out there and get guys out. You can’t overthink it.”
Robertson, a right-hander, final pitched for the Yankees in 2018, throughout his second stint with the crew, earlier than signing with Philadelphia as a free agent. His path again to New York wound via Tommy John surgical procedure; a tuneup in an newbie males’s league in Rhode Island; a spot on the United States crew on the Tokyo Olympics; the Tampa Bay Rays; the Chicago Cubs; and the Phillies once more.
He’s evolving as he ages. On Monday, Robertson fanned the Padres’ Trent Grisham with a changeup. The final time he threw one which labored, he guessed, was to Torii Hunter in 2015. He’s additionally studying to regulate his grip on his fastball, he stated, to maintain it true and to distinguish it from his cutter.
“It’s another view for the hitter to look at,” stated Robertson, who has two saves this season. “If you throw one that doesn’t cut and they think it’s going to cut, you may miss a barrel.”
In the low season, although, it was Robertson who whiffed. He acts as his personal agent and secured a profitable deal (one 12 months, $10 million) within the metropolis the place his consumer wished to pitch. But Robertson missed one element: With Díaz seemingly locked in at nearer, he forgot to ask for a bonus clause for video games completed.
