Put bluntly, it was not a great Opening Weekend for the Mets — especially on offense.
New York lost two out of three against the Houston Astros, scoring a total of five runs in the three games and culminating with getting one hit in a 2-1 loss on Saturday. Even in their lone win, the Mets pushed across just three runs and managed only five hits.
But the weekend wasn’t all bad for New York whose bullpen pitched 9.2 innings without allowing a run. In fact, throughout the series the Mets were able to get all eight relievers into a game, with all eight looking good in the process.
Max Kranick’s return to MLB
Saturday saw the team debut of Kranick who last pitched in the majors in 2022 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. His first order of business back on the job? Coming in to face Yordan Alvarez with the bases loaded and one out in a one-run game in the bottom of the eighth inning. Not exactly the “soft spot” that manager Carlos Mendoza was hoping to use the right-hander for in his first MLB appearance in three years.
And still, Kranick managed to escape the jam unscathed with a foul pop out and groundout to give his team a chance in the ninth. “Huge, huge,” Mendoza said about Kranick’s performance.
“My heart was definitely racing,” Kranick said. “It feels good to get the jitters and the first one out of the way. I’m happy with how it went.”
Kranick earned himself a spot on the Opening Day roster thanks to his spectacular spring training. And after getting the first one out of the way after all these years and an arduous journey following Tommy John surgery, he’s excited to show the Mets what he can bring to the table out of the bullpen.
“It’s been tough the past couple years,” he said. “I was really anxious to get the first one out of the way and hopefully keep rolling.”
Jose Siri’s impact
Siri made his first start of the season (and first with New York) on Saturday after Tyrone Taylor got the start in center field for the first two games. While he did strike out twice in two at-bats in the No. 9 hole, he also worked a walk, stole a base and scored the team’s only run manufactured entirely by him.
Down 1-0 in the sixth, Siri led off the inning with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a fly out and scored the tying run on a groundout to the pitcher, breaking for home plate after Houston starter Spencer Arrighetti turned his back on Siri to get the out at first base.
“That’s instincts right there,” Mendoza said about the heads up play. “He can impact and help you win baseball games in a lot of different ways, not only with his defense, with his legs, with the way he runs the bases. But he’s also got power so he’s a good player with a lot of tools that he’s gonna impact this team in a good way moving forward.”
It’ll be interesting to see how the center field position gets divvied up this season as both Siri and Taylor, two excellent defenders, bat from the right side. Taylor went 1-for-8 in his two starts.
Griffin Canning’s uptick in velocity
The second starter to make his team debut this series after Clay Holmes pitched on Opening Day, Canning looked good over his 5.2 innings. The right-hander allowed two runs on four hits, striking out four and walking two, but his last pitch thrown went for an RBI double against Alvarez that was the difference in the game.
Nevertheless, after a spring training where his fastball sat around 93-94 mph, Canning’s velocity topped out at 96 mph on Saturday, causing Mendoza to take notice.
“I thought Canning was really good overall,” the skipper said. “The slider was good, changeup was good, the velo. I mean when you look at the first couple of innings, the fastball was up to 96 – something that we didn’t see in spring training. And he kept attacking, kept mixing his pitches. I thought overall he had a really good outing.”
For Canning, he views the start as a good one to build off of going forward. But if he can prove to be a solid option like he was on Saturday and for all of spring training, the Mets “have something there,” Mendoza said.
As for Alvarez, the slugger just got to Canning once again after entering play on Saturday 2-for-6 with a home run against the 28-year-old. Before the double, Alvarez was 0-for-2 on the night.
“I’ve had some tough battles with Yordan so that’s unfortunate to end it that way,” Canning said.
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