Jose Quintana sharp, Joey Lucchesi not as Mets fall to Nationals, 4-1
WEST PALM BEACH – Jose Quintana looked sharp, but he was the only real highlight for the Mets on Tuesday night in a 4-1 loss to the Nationals at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. The Mets had only two hits against Washington pitching.
Here are the main takeaways:
- Quintana, who is likely in the running for a potential Opening Day start, turned in his most impressive performance of the spring, throwing four scoreless innings. The lefty gave up two hits in the first inning but then retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced. Quintana struck out two and walked one, trimming his spring ERA to a tidy 2.08. He also got nine ground-ball outs. The Mets entered the day’s play with the best overall spring ERA in the majors (2.52 before Tuesday’s game).
- Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore sailed through the first three innings, retiring nine straight Mets. But he lost the plate in the third inning and his wildness led to a Mets run. Brandon Nimmo led off with a single and, one out later, Gore walked Pete Alonso. Then he walked Ji-Man Choi. Then he walked Starling Marte, too, forcing in the first run of the game. Gore recovered quickly, though, getting Jose Iglesias to bounce into an inning-ending double play. The RBI was Marte’s second of camp.
- The Nats knotted the score at 1 in the fifth inning when Joey Lucchesi, who replaced Quintana, had his own spate of wildness and appeared to let the game tempo get away from him. Lucchesi allowed a leadoff single to Eddie Rosario, walked a batter and then hit one to load the bases with no outs. But at least Lucchesi limited the damage from that, getting Victor Robles to hit a double-play grounder that plated a run and CJ Abrams to fly to center.
Lucchesi was making his first start in Grapefruit League play and his velocity sat in the high 80s, rather than his usual 90-91, though Carlos Mendoza did not seem worried and Lucchesi said he feels healthy. The Nationals scored three runs in the sixth inning and all were charged to Lucchesi and he was replaced during the inning.
- While the Nationals batted in the first inning, an odd thing happened – a shard of a broken bat got caught in the netting behind the plate, near the Nats dugout. It hung there while the inning was completed. Someone shook the netting and brought the jagged shard harmlessly down.
Highlights
What's Next...
The Mets return home to host the Houston Astros on Wednesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. on SNY.
Luis Severino (1-0, 0.00 ERA) is on the mound to take on Cristian Javier (2-0, 3.00 ERA)
