Mets Morning News: Mets win Game 1 in Oakland, league prepares to celebrate Jackie Robinson Day

Meet the Mets

The Mets began a three-game series against the Athletics last night. Kodai Senga had his roughest start of the season, as he couldn’t make it through five innings. That hardly mattered, however, as the Mets drew a franchise-record 17(!) walks and Fransisco Lindor drove in seven runs—four of them on a grand slam. The result was an ugly yet decisive 17-6 win.

Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, Newsday, MLB.com, North Jersey

Buck Showalter is planning on utilizing a spot starter on this West Coast trip to avoid using any of their starters on four days rest.

Justin Verlander is going to throw a bullpen session soon as he continues to work his way back to game action.

Eric Chavez continues to establish himself as a potential future manager in the major leagues.

Various factors have caused the Mets to struggle to develop quality starting pitchers in their farm system in recent years.

Around the National League East

The Braves did what the Braves do best in their series opener against the Royals: hit a bunch of dingers, as five homers led them to a 10-3 win.

Atlanta officially recalled Vaughn Grissom from the minors to replaced Orlando Arcia, who was placed on the 10-day IL.

Taijuan Walker pitched six innings and gave up just one run, while the Phillies bats beat up on Reds pitching to secure an 8-3 victory in the second game of their series against Cincinnati.

The Marlins put up five runs in the fourth inning against Madison Bumgarner, which was enough to propel them to victory over the Diamondbacks.

Josh Bell hit a home run against his former team as the Guardians defeated the Nationals 4-3.

Sean Doolittle has begun throwing bullpen sessions as the veteran reliever attempts to pitch this year for Washington.

Around Major League Baseball

The league has several plans for celebrating Jackie Robinson Day today.

Ladies and gentlemen, it has happened: the Tampa Bay Rays have lost a baseball game.

The Giants locked up one of their top pitchers, as Logan Webb agreed to a five-year contract worth $90 million.

The Rays expect to be without lefty starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs for a few months at least.

The number of Black Americans in baseball is as low as it’s been since the 1950s, but many around the game are trying to slowly but surely change that.

One of the few players the Orioles added over the offseason, starting pitcher Cole Irvin, is already heading to the minors after three disastrous starts to begin his season.

The league continues to envision a future for streaming baseball games in which blackouts are less of an issue.

One umpire shared his thoughts on how the implementation of the new rules has gone thus far.

MLB.com looked at the biggest surprises (good or bad) for each team thus far in the young season.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Brian Salvatore previewed the series in Oakland and predicted the Mets would take two of three.

Brian and Chris McShane discussed the outcome of the Mets’ first homestand in the latest episode of Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World Series.

This Date in Mets History

Jackie Robinson was honored on the very first Jackie Robinson Day at Shea Stadium on this date in 1997.