Jon Niese had an easy time of it today as the Mets blanked the Marlins. The young lefty threw 4.2 scoreless innings with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk. Michael O'Connor finished off the 5th inning with ease. Les Walrond - a guy I hadn't heard of until his appearance today - pitched the 6th. Bobby Parnell, Jason Isringhausen, and Francisco Rodriguez each pitched a scoreless inning after that. That's a good sign for Isringhausen as this appearance was his first after pitching in back-to-back games earlier in the week.
The opposing team hasn't come up much in these spring training recaps, but it's certainly worth noting that the Marlins played some laughable defense on the day, totaling 5 errors, 2 of which were made by Hanley Ramirez. These games may not count, but there's nothing wrong with enjoying the follies of a division rival.
Ike Davis had the biggest day at the plate, going 3-for-3, including a rocket of a home run in the bottom of the third. Josh Thole had a couple of hits and continued to show some pop as one of them was a two-run home run. Jason Bay made a nice sliding catch in the 4th inning but struck out in each of his 3 at-bats. His name hasn't home up much since the Beltran-to-right-field thing, but Angel Pagan turned in a nice day at the plate, too.
Brad Emaus went 2-for-4 this afternoon with a pair of singles. It's not much, but that's one of the better days he's had thus far. Luis Castillo went 2-for-2 and drew a walk. Like Emaus, both hits were singles, but Luis reached base in each of his plate appearances. With that, here's the updated second base competition chart:
| Player | AB | AVG | OBP | SLG | INN | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castillo | 19 | 0.263 | 0.364 | 0.263 | 28 | 1 |
| Emaus | 19 | 0.211 | 0.318 | 0.211 | 33 | 1 |
| Murphy | 29 | 0.276 | 0.300 | 0.414 | 29 | 0 |
| Turner | 18 | 0.167 | 0.211 | 0.222 | 15 | 0 |
Both candidates who played today improved their numbers a bit. As you can see, they've both been singles specialists. Since Emaus was the DH today with Castillo manning second base, the innings played there are nearly even among the three players who figure to stand a chance at this point.
The Mets visit the Braves tomorrow at 1:05 pm, and the game will be broadcast on WFAN.
Game Thread Roll Call
Go Gorfax.
| Name | # of Posts |
| Gorfax | 58 |
| Kepler | 54 |
| spaceboy761 | 44 |
| Russ | 37 |
| Michkin | 33 |
| MetsFan4Decades | 30 |
| the caveman | 26 |
| mistermet | 21 |
| itsmetsforme | 17 |