Today's game was generally uninspiring, though not nearly as soul-crushing as the defeat of a certain #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament last night. I missed Mets-Twins on teevee, so if you're inclined to ask "do you even watch the games?", the answer is no. Luckily the MLB.com boxscore is quite detailed, providing all kinds of exciting info about this afternoon's matchup.
Johan Santana was knocked around a bit in 3.1 innings of work, allowing five runs on nine hits, including two home runs to players with zero major league experience. On the plus side, he struck out three, walked one and had an uncharacteristic 6:1 GB:FB ratio.
Jenrry "The Ace" (way too early for that) "The 8th" (let's hope not) Mejia pitched one inning, surrendering a run while failing to strike anyone out. He also walked one and threw a wild pitch, to the dismay of Kevin Kernan, Craig Carton and the rest of the New York media fatcats clamoring for the 20 year-old to travel north come April. Bobby Parnell and Pat Misch threw two scoreless innings apiece, with the latter even striking out a couple batters. Misch has performed admirably this spring but is basically the definition of replacement level. He'll probably account for some innings this season but likely won't, and shouldn't, be on the Opening Day roster.
The offense was led by Omir Santos and Ruben Tejada. Future minor leaguer Omir will not go quietly into the night, as he blasted his 2nd homer of the preseason while raising his average to .353. Tejada ripped two doubles, and is now batting .378. Perhaps he was motivated by the news that Alex Cora will likely start on Opening Day, should our man Jose Reyes be unavailable. Jason Bay kept raking, going 2-2 with a walk.
Daniel Murphy, Fernando Tatis and Jeff Francoeur continued to struggle, combining to go 0-9 while lowering their respective OPS's to .410, .200 and .544.
***Nick Evans Alert***
Nick Evans pinch-hit for Misch, drawing a walk.
The Mets face the Cardinals at 1:05 tomorrow.
In lieu of WPA graph, here is an edited-for-spelling text message I received from a friend today:
Just heard a Mets beat writer [ESPN Radio's Rich Coutinho] say that Jacobs will win the job over Murphy because he hangs out with Francoeur and Wright, and Murphy is not "warm and fuzzy".