Francisco Lindor Homers As Mets Tie With Cardinals
Francisco Lindor. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports
The Mets and Cardinals faced off in the penultimate game of spring training on Saturday night at Clover Park. It was right-handed pitcher Andre Pallante on the mound for the visiting team against right-handed pitcher Tylor Megill for the Mets.
Both the offense and pitching got off to slow starts on Saturday as the Mets and Cardinals ended up in a tie at the end of the night. The biggest offense produced by the Mets was a sixth inning two-run home run by Francisco Lindor that kickstarted a mini comeback for the Mets. But it was a little too late as they were only able to produce two more runs in the game that led to the 4-4 tie that Saturday’s game ended with.
Megill did not get off to a great start on Saturday night. He gave up two quick lead-off singles in the first followed by two one-out walks, the second of which walked in a run to give the Cardinals a quick 1-0 lead over the Mets in the first. Luken Baker then flew out to center field on a sacrifice fly to extend St. Louis’ lead to 2-0 before Megill finally found his way out of the inning.
The Mets went down fairly quiet in the first five innings. Pete Alonso singled in the bottom of the second, Starling Marte singled in the fourth, and Mark Canha singled in the fifth, but they were all left stranded as the Mets were unable to move the runners or produce any runs through five innings.
After a rough start in the first, Megill settled down through the next four innings. He gave up just two more walks between the second and fifth inning. Megill came back out to pitch the sixth, but a lead-off walk was all manager Buck Showalter allowed as he went to his bullpen with one on and no outs. Jimmy Yacabonis came in to pitch the sixth for Megill.
.@Lindor12BC is LOCKED in. pic.twitter.com/Q3KerR9wBK
— New York Mets (@Mets) March 26, 2023
Megill finished with three earned runs on two hits while striking out four and walking five in five innings pitched.
Yacabonis also started off on a rough note, allowing a quick RBI double to Justin Toerner that extended the Cardinals’ lead over the Mets to 3-0 in the top of the 6th. Yacabonis then walked the next two batters he faced to load the bases before striking out Oscar Mercado. But then trouble continued for Yacabonis. Though he got Kramer Robertson to ground out, a run scored to extend the Cardinals’ lead over the Mets to 4-0 before Yacabonis got out of the inning on a strikeout of Juniel Querecuto.
The Mets answered back and got on the board in the bottom of the sixth. Logan Gragg gave up a one-out walk to Marte to put a runner on and then Lindor followed up Marte with a rocket home run to deep right field that scored Marte and made it a 4-2 game in the bottom of the sixth.
Neither team produced any runs in the seventh inning. Masyn Winn led off the top of the seventh with a triple off of Yacabonis, but he was left stranded along with Wade Stauss who was hit by a pitch. Though he allowed two runners, Yacabonis was able to get out of the inning unscathed.
The Mets went down in order in the bottom half of the seventh.
An inning later in the eight inning, the Mets tried to get a rally going. Tim Locastro was hit by a pitch to open the inning. Michael Pérez then doubled, moving Locastro to third. Jonathan Araúz then grounded out to first, but that allowed Locastro to score to make it a 4-3 ballgame in the eighth. Two batters after that, José Peraza doubled to left field and scored Pérez to tie it up 4-4.
The game remained tied through nine innings and the Mets and Cardinals chose not to go into extra innings, ending the game in a 4-4 tie with six hits in the hits column for each team as well to make it a tie in both runs and hits.
Player of the Game
Saturday night’s Metsmerized Player of the Game went to Lindor. He was 1-for-3, with one run scored and two RBI’s on his sixth inning home run off of Gragg. Lindor will be a key driver for this Mets offense in 2023, and the fact he looked sharp at the plate on Saturday will serve as a huge positive heading into Opening Day.
On Deck
Spring training 2023 comes to an end on Sunday as the Mets close out their Grapefruit League campaign against the Miami Marlins at 4:10PM at Clover Park. The two clubs close out the spring together and then will meet again on Thursday on Opening Day 2023 at Loan Depot Park in Miami.
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