Tigers 6 Mets 3 (Citi Field Flushing, NY)
Mets record: 0-5
Mets Current streak: Lost 5
Mets Last 10 Games : 0-5
WP- Shelby Miller 1-0
LP - Michael Tonkin 0-2
Seat on the Korner:
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
Today's seat for the first game of the doubleheader seat on the Korner belongs to Colt Keith. The Tigers rookie second baseman had been 1 for 17 to start his career before lashing a two-strike pitch from Michael Tonkin off the base of the wall to break a 3-3 tie as the Tigers went on to win, 6-3. It was the second loss in a row in extra innings to Detroit, who begin the year 5-0 while the Mets fell to 0-5 in Carlos Medoza's first go round as a major league manager.
Need to Know
Today the Mets played their first doubleheader of 2024. Due to two nights of rainouts, the Mets are using the offday to make up the two games with the Tigers. The team's next scheduled offday is not for three weeks--Thursday, April 18, when the team embarks on their first West Coast trip to play the Dodgers and Giants.
The Mets entered the doubleheader 11-17 all time versus the Tigers. Detroit won the last four, including a sweep in Motown in 2023. This is the fourth venue where the Mets have played the Tigers: Tiger Stadium (1997), Shea Stadium (2004), Comerica Park (2007, 2011, 2016, 2023), and Citi Field (2010, 2013, 2019, 2024).
Mets starting pitcher Adrian Houser, 31, made his first career appearance as a Met. Drafted out of high school in Oklahoma in the second round by Houston in 2011, he was traded to the Brewers with Josh Hader, Brett Phillips, and Domingo Santana at the July 2015 trading deadline for Mike Fiers, Carlos Gomez, and cash. The Mets acquired Houser from Milwaukee on Dec. 20, 2023 in a deal with outfielder Tyrone Taylor for minor leaguer Coleman Crow. Houser describes himself as an “old school” pitcher, focusing on ground balls more than strikeouts during his five years as starter for the Brewers. Last year in 111.1 innings over 23 games (21 starts), he was 8-5 with a 4.12 ERA. Batters had a .273/.324/.406 slash line, a .296 batting average on balls in play, and a 1.392 WHIP. His walk percentage of 7.1 in 2023 was his lowest since becoming a starter.
Detroit starter Casey Mize made his first major league appearance in two years. The 2018 first overall pick by the Detroit Tigers from the Auburn Tigers, he underwent UCL surgery in 2022. He was recently featured the New York Times by The Athletic about the return of the split-fingered fastball, which for years was not embraced in professional baseball because it was believed to ruin pitchers’ arms, based on the 1980s proliferation of the pitch. “I feel like it was taboo for the longest time, right?” he said. “It’s just whispers and conversations. ‘Hey, I really want to throw this pitch. How do you do it?’ ” Apparently, Mize has learned as have the Tigers, who have two other hurlers who have mastered the pitch: Kenta Maeda and Shelby Miller.
Former Braves right-hander Julio Teheran on a major league contract. Teheran, who pitched nine years for Atlanta, has pitched well in 15 starts at Citi Field, going 6-4 with a 2.97 ERA. Fellow Columbian Jose Quintana is already in the Mets rotation.
All 10 Mets extra innings games last year were decided in 10 innings, thanks to the free runner rule. They went 7-3 in extras and start 0-2 here.
Pete Alonso entered play one RBI away from 500 for his career. He would become the 10th player in Mets history to record 500 RBI. The first game of the doubleheader was Alonso's 689th game as a Met; David Wright was the fastest Met to reach the plateau, driving in his 500th run in his 727 game. Wright is the Mets leader with five 100 RBI seasons. Alonso has three such seasons. Carlos Beltrán and Darryl Strawberry also recorded three seasons each. Alonso's 499 RBI since he entered the league in 2019 are the most in the major leagues
Turning Point
The turning point in the first of two games on April 4 against Detroit came in the top of the 11th inning on a long double by Tigers rookie Colt Keith. Detroit had enough confidence in the young player to sign him to an extension before he even made his major league debut. The Tigers inked him to a six-year, $28.6 contract in January. In the 11th inning--after both the Mets and Tigers squandered scoring chances in the 10th--Keith showed why the investment seems to been well founded.
Three Keys
BENGALS' BULLPEN DOMINATION
While the Mets bullpen has floundered in the early going, blowing a lead in the eighth inning and then surrendering three runs in the 11th, the Tigers bullpen has been near perfect. In Detroit's first 23.2 innings of bullpen work on the young season, they have allowed just one earned run, an 0.38 ERA. Tigers relievers pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings in the game and did not allow a hit to the Mets after the fifth inning
SEEING GREENE
Riley Greene, who like Colt Keith had been mired in a 1 for 17 funk to start the year, pulled a home run just over the fence in right field to tie the game in the eighth inning against Adam Ottavino. He allowed seven home runs in 61.2 innings last year.
SOMEONE'S HITTING
Francisco Alvarez got hits his first two times up, including a double on a two-strike pitch to put the Mets on the board, 2-0, in the third inning to end a 19-inning scoreless skein by the Mets. Brett Baty punched a two-out hit the opposite way off Joey Wentz. Both were positive signs as the Mets built a 3-0 lead, but it melted away with some late-game misfires by the young Mets. Alvarez bounced into an inning-ending double play in the ninth and Baty, who made a couple of stellar plays in the field at key moments, could not bunt when asked and then was called out on a checked swing as the Mets squandered another rally.
Commentaires