The New York Mets (8-6) took on the Detroit Tigers Sunday afternoon at Clover Park and as Opening Day approaches. The Mets got a look at Adrian Houser and a few other arms in the bullpen. To begin, Houser aimed for a performance reminiscent of his strong first start, hoping to bounce back from a less impressive outing on March 3.
Jake Diekman, Shintaro Fujinami, and Jorge López were also slated to pitch in Sunday’s contest. Outside of a strong performance by Houser, and two solo home runs by Tomás Nido and Mark Vientos, the Mets bullpen faltered at the end and New York dropped Sunday’s matchup to the Tigers, 3-2.
Following the aforementioned subpar performance on March 3, Adrian Houser rebounded impressively, delivering 3 1/3 scoreless innings against Detroit and striking out five with just 37 pitches with 27 strikes. Houser struck out Spencer Torkelson, Mark Canha, and three others, with his fastball reaching 93 mph.
Following him, Austin Adams, a non-roster invitee initially signed to a major-league deal, Adam Ottavino, and Jake Diekman all tossed scoreless frames for New York, combining for four strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings. On the other hand, Jorge López pitched one inning and allowed three hits, resulting in one earned run. Shintaro Fujinami also struggled, giving up three hits, two runs (one earned), issuing one walk, and striking out one batter which allowed the Tigers to take a 3-1 lead by the middle of the eighth inning.
As mentioned, the only offense of the game via solo home runs. Mark Vientos had one in second and Tomás Nido one in the ninth inning. Elsewhere offensively, Pete Alonso doubled, and DJ Stewart had a base hit. Brett Baty went 0-for-2 and Francisco Lindor and Francisco Álvarez were held hitless.
Overall, it was a struggle for the offense, posting only five hits as a team and a game xBA of .224. This in contract to the Tigers’ .284 xBA.
Mark Vientos. Photo by Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
After going 2-for-4 in his last game, Mark Vientos stayed hot and knocked his second home run of the spring, a solo home run in the bottom of the second that traveled to right field to put the Mets up by one. His home run traveled 329 feet with an exit velocity of 100 mph. Vientos would go on to go 1-for-3 on the afternoon with a walk.
Adrian Houser stood out the most as he bounced back from his lackluster performance last time out and pitched 3 1/3 scoreless frames. Houser, who is likely to round out the Mets rotation to begin the season, has turned in two extremely solid starts, of three total, to begin spring training.
The Mets stay home in Clover Park to take on the Miami Marlins on Monday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 pm ET and will be televised locally on SNY along with the radio broadcast on WCBS 880 AM.
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