Stro, Dom, and Pete Power Mets to Win Over Phillies
Bullpen shaky but stands up sufficiently in Mets' first win of 2021
Image via New York Mets
Marcus Stroman ascended the mound at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday hoping to get the Mets back on track after a disappointing season-opening loss to the Phillies on Monday.
Stroman, 29, did just that, mixing his pitches and using both sides of the plate well in his first MLB start since September 2019, with Didi Gregorius’ solo home run in the fourth as his only blemish over six innings of work (85 pitches, 53 strikes).
In a scoreless first, Stroman provided a textbook example of changing location and speed to keep a hitter off-balance versus Alec Bohm, inducing a 6-4-3 double play. No split-changes here; all sinkers.
Pete Alonso tattooed the first pitch he saw (114.2 MPH off the bat; woof) from Phillies right-hander Chase Anderson (7.22 ERA over 33.2 innings with Toronto in 2020; 4.38 ERA since 2018) for a right-center gap double to lead off the second.
J.D. Davis was hit on the hand by an offering from Anderson later in the frame and left the game, replaced at third and pinch-ran for by Luis Guillorme (X-rays negative). Despite the free baserunner, the Mets couldn’t turn Anderson’s mistakes into paydirt.
Stroman worked around two Phillies base hits and a hit-by-pitch in the second (J.T. Realmuto, Jean Segura), inducing two groundouts in the inning — as Stro does — and put up a perfect frame in the third to keep things scoreless.
Dominic Smith — in the starting lineup after finding himself on the bench for Opening Day — put the Mets on the board in the top of the fourth with an opposite-field two-run homer off Anderson (Alonso walk), absolutely creaming a pitch high and away.
Following Realmuto’s second infield hit of the game (and a stolen base) in the sixth, Pete Alonso saved a double with an outstanding diving play behind the bag at first preventing a sure run-scoring extra-base hit, and Stroman induced a Segura groundout to strand Realmuto at third.
At 85 pitches through six, Stroman was pinch-hit for by Kevin Pillar in the seventh with Guillorme and McCann on base (both walked), giving the Metsies another opportunity to plate some insurance runs after missing that boat completely on Monday.
Pillar and Brandon Nimmo both drew walks to extend the Mets’ lead to 3-1 and end Vince Velasquez’s night. Facing Brandon Kintzler, Francisco Lindor brought home McCann with a sacrifice fly to make it a 4-1 game.
Realmuto’s errant throw on Nimmo’s stolen base at second allowed Pillar to scamper home (in the books as a steal of home), extending the lead to 5-1, and Michael Conforto’s double into the right-field corner scored Nimmo to make it 6-1, Mets.
Four insurance runs on one hit in the inning? Yes, that’ll do. The Mets’ bullpen just had to make it stand up. Easier said than done; but well done, ultimately.
Miguel Castro struck out the first two batters he faced in the seventh but a two-out double via Adam Haseley and back-to-back singles from Rhys Hoskins and Bohm cut the Mets’ lead to 6-2 before he got Harper to line out, extinguishing that threat.
Trevor May worked around two soft base hits in a scoreless eighth, slowly but surely finding his stuff — a handful of conversations with himself on the mound included. We love to see it.
Pete Alonso hit his first home run of the season, a two-run shot in the eighth, to put the Mets ahead 8-2 and the game out of reach for Philadelphia, and Jeurys Familia closed things out with a shaky inning in the ninth, securing an 8-4 win for the Metropolitans.
Let’s close it out with a Polar Smash. See you all on Wednesday for a 4 PM EST start on SNY/WBCS 880 AM.
Subscribe to the free email list or become a paid subscriber below!
Just $2.50/month for the year to support independent journalism ($0.19 a game over a full season)! We appreciate your patronage!
IBWAA members love to write about baseball. So much so, they've created their own newsletter about it! Subscribe to Here's the Pitch to expand your love of baseball, discover new voices, and support independent writing.
Original content six days a week, straight to your inbox and straight from the hearts of baseball fans. Click here to subscribe and see what they're all about!