Mets Rally In Late Innings For 7-5 Win Over Nats; Third Round of Cuts
The Mets struck for four in the 8th and two more in the 9th to hand the Nats their third straight defeat, 7-5 in Viera.
Early on, the game was a pitcher’s duel between a pair of pitchers looking to make their team’s starting rotation as the #5 man, as Ross Detwiler faced off against Daisuke Matsusaka.
Denard Span doubled, stole third, and came around on a Bryce Harper groundout to score the Nats first run.
Detwiler pitched into the 4th, but couldn’t hold the 1-0 lead. The 27-year-old southpaw gave up two of three hits he allowed in the 4th, with David Wright plating the equalizer with two outs on an RBI double and chasing the Nats’ 2007 1st Rd. pick from the game. Detwiler walked one and fanned two in his third appearance.
Christian Garcia followed Detwiler and walked the first batter he faced but stranded Wright and his free pass with a flyout to second batter he faced, then struck out two in a 1-2-3 fifth inning.
After the Nats took a 2-1 lead on an error in the 7th, the Mets took control with a four-run outburst against NRI reliever Manny Delcarmen, who retired one of six batters faced and while putting the other five on via walk (three times) or base hit (two singles), and minor-league veteran Rob Gilliam, who let in two of three inherited runners via a wild pitch and a sac fly before ending the inning.
Brock Peterson cashed in a pair of walks issued to Steve Souza and Emmanuel Burris to the game at 5-5 with an Earl Weaver special.
Gilliam was lifted for Brian Dupra after giving up a two-out single. The Mets victimized the final Nats reliever with a single-walk-single sequence that drove in the final two New York runs. Stephen Perez drew a leadoff walk and Eury Perez singled two batters later to get the tying runs on with one out but neither Souza nor Burriss could get the ball out of the infield as both popped up for the final two outs.
The Nationals hit the road for the next two days before splitting the squads again on Sunday (one home, one away).
As for the third round of cuts mentioned in the headline: Prior to today’s game LHP Matt Purke and OF Michael Taylor were both optioned to Harrisburg, while LHP Danny Rosenbaum and RHPs Clay Hensley, Daniel Stange, and Josh “Do You Know Who My Brother-In-Law Is?” Roenicke were reassigned to minor-league camp.
The pare-down slices the MLB camp roster to 49 players with 15 games left for the spring and 18 days until the season opener in New York.
Luke – I’ve been meaning to post thanks for these regular updates. I read them every day and generally get more out of them than the game stories.
As for the cuts, Taylor got a chance to catch the eye of the new leadership, although he showed that he’s still not ready at the plate. Purke finished well in his last outing after getting roughed up a couple of times. This will be a big season for him to show what he’s got. With the acquisition of Rivero, though, and with Solis also in the mix, you have to figure that one of those guys may become a trade chip. (See Ray, Robbie.)
Since hardly anyone outside the confines of this blog has even heard of Josh Johnson, I’ll also note here that’s it really a bad break for him that he wasn’t healthy to compete for the utility position. With Espinoza not hitting and with lingering concerns about Walters’ K rate and defense, Johnson would have had an opportunity to get a long look. Kobernus seems to still have a good shot at that position as well, and great for him, but he can’t really play SS.
Josh Johnson, Chris Rahl, Erik Komatsu … and perhaps not as good defensively but still moving within the system: Jason Martinson and Cutter Dykstra. Three to four years ago they might have seen action in the majors.
Appreciate it, KW. As the club has evolved into a contender, the premise has become thinner but I’ve justified doing it for about three weeks to get some reps in preparation for the daily news & notes in the regular season.
After reading a “feel good” story on Hensley getting noticed by Strasburg while working out over the winter, I was hoping he would get more of a showcase (and take advantage of it). Maybe he can leverage this short window, or perhaps stick around and show enough at Syracuse to get an offer somewhere.
Too bad we didn’t know the Braves were going to lose all of their pitchers before the season started. We could have held on to Nathan Karns for more than Lobaton and Vettleson who are 2-22 so far in spring ball.
Would they deal with their division rivals? Rizzo still has significant pitching that is close-to-ready?