B-squad Mets trounce Tigers 7-1

The Mets came out of the gate swinging this afternoon, as Amed Rosario led off the game with a solo home run against Tigers starter Tyson Ross. Rosario continues to look good at the plate; he is now 4-for-9 so far in spring training. The Mets piled on, scoring every inning in the first four frames. Ross struggled in the second inning with his control, walking three batters and throwing three wild pitches in the span of seven pitches, resulting in the Mets tacking on two runs to make the score 3-0. Ross escaped further damage by inducing a double play grounder from Andres Gimenez and getting Dominic Smith to pop out to end the inning.

Meanwhile, Jacob deGrom cruised in his second Grapefruit League outing, tossing three easy scoreless innings. Every fastball was clocking in at 97-99 mph on the radar gun. He gave up just one hit—a leadoff double to Mikie Mahtook to lead off the third inning, which was misplayed by Tim Tebow. He immediately bounced back, notching three swinging strikeouts in succession for a total of four strikeouts on the day.

A solo homer from Devin Mesoraco in the third off Joe Jimenez lengthened the Mets’ lead to 4-0. The Mets added two more runs in the fourth inning against Tigers Rule 5 pick Reed Garrett, who the Tigers liked for his power arm. But he struggled to get that out pitch against the Mets lineup, which continued to find ways to put balls in play against him. The inning featured a couple of walks and soft singles from Gimenez and Smith to put the Mets ahead 6-0.

Robert Gsellman followed deGrom and logged two scoreless innings of work, giving up just two hits. Tigers pitching limited the Mets’ bats in the latter part of the game, with the Mets’ final run of the day coming in the top of the eighth inning from a long solo homer off the bat of Dario Pizzano. The Tigers’ only run of the day came in the seventh inning off of Daniel Zamora in the form of a solo homer from Ronny Rodriguez. Seth Lugo pitched a quick 1-2-3 sixth inning. Eric Hanhold and P.J. Conlon each pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit apiece.

Some other highlights from today’s action:

• We played some fun name games during today’s contest, as Seth Lugo faced off against Dawel Lugo in the sixth inning and Sergio Alcantara flew out to Arismendy Alcantara in the eighth inning.
• Gavin Cecchini walked twice in today’s game and scored both times.
• Dominic Smith reached base three times today, collecting another base hit and a walk in addition to his RBI single in the second. He has five hits in eight spring at-bats.
• Tim Tebow struck out twice today and remains hitless in Grapefruit League play so far this spring.
• Considering the sloppy defense that has been featured so far in spring training, it is of note that the Mets committed no errors in the field today.

Full box score: MLB.com

The Mets return home tomorrow to face off against the Houston Astros at 1:10pm. Noah Syndergaard makes his second start of the spring and just like in his first start, he’ll be facing off against Justin Verlander. The game will be televised on WPIX and broadcasted on WCBS 880.