Although the outfield sprinklers stopped play for a few minutes, Pete Alonso would not be stopped as his three-hit game jolted the Mets to a 5-2 win over the Marlins.
Here are the takeaways…
– Jose Butto started the game for the Mets and struck out three in a row after a leadoff walk to the National League steals leader, Jon Berti. That streak went to four straight batters before another walk broke it up. After a ground out, manager Buck Showalter pulled his starter after 43 pitches. Butto was impressive, but he would get into deep counts and the Marlins hitters fouled off a lot of pitches.
Hunter Parsons took over for Butto and after a throwing error by Tomas Nido, Joe Rizzo took a pitch that was over the plate to deep center over the head of new Met Tommy Pham to give the Marlins an early 1-0 lead.
Despite that, an impressive first spring outing for the 24-year-old. Butto’s final line: 1.2 IP, four strikeouts, two walks, one earned run.
– Alonso, entering the final year of his contract, started his spring with a bang. Alonso’s slow, methodical approach at the plate may be something to watch this spring/season, but the pitch clock didn’t bother him, as he pulled a fastball that was bleeding over the middle of the plate over the right field wall.
Alonso would add a single in the third inning and another in the fifth. He also forced a defensive shift thanks to his threat to steal that allowed Daniel Vogelbach to poke a single through the right side of the infield to extend the Mets lead to 4-2 in the fifth. The “dancing” Polar Bear did it all on Saturday night. His night finished 3-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored.
– Eduardo Escobar is likely to win the starting third base job out of spring training, but with the tear Brett Baty is on so far, it may be a close competition. It helps that he picked up a single on a botched defensive play by the Marlins infield, and scored from first on an Abraham Almonte double — he would drive in another run on a single to push the Mets lead to 5-2. However, he slid headfirst into home plate and came up a bit shaken. He did come out to play third base in the next half inning.
Escobar’s defense was also on display as he got a ground ball from a shattered bat to get the speedy…