Game Thread: Mets vs. Nats in West Palm Beach
Miles Mikolas is on the mound as the Nationals host the Mets in a quick turnaround from Wednesday night's win over Venezuela
During the regular season, it’s not a big deal when guys play a day game after a night game (aside from catchers). During spring training, it doesn’t happen often. Especially when the calendar has only recently flipped from February to March.
So after fielding a lineup of mostly regulars for Wednesday night’s game against Venezuela, the Nationals are fielding a lineup of mostly backups for today’s game against the Mets. The primary exception: Keibert Ruiz, who will be behind the plate after homering as DH on Wednesday.
Ruiz will be catching Miles Mikolas, who makes his second start of the spring. The veteran right-hander tossed two scoreless last time out, though he did walk three batters. Barring a super-high pitch count, he should be good for three innings this afternoon against a Mets lineup that’s also without several prominent regulars who are playing in the World Baseball Classic.
Unlike the players, the broadcasters do go back-to-back, even with a quick turnaround. Dan, Kevin and Alexa will have the call on Nationals.TV, while at the same time Charlie and Dave will be streaming the radio broadcast on nationals.com.
NEW YORK METS vs. WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches
Gametime: 1:05 p.m. EDT
TV: Nationals.TV (in-market), MLB.TV (out-of-market)
Radio: nationals.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 81 degrees, wind 16 mph right to left
METS
LF Mike Tauchman
1B Jorge Polanco
3B Bo Bichette
RF Brett Baty
SS Ronny Mauricio
DH Jose Rojas
CF Cristian Pache
2B Jackson Cluff
C Ben Rortvedt
RHP Justin Hagenman
NATIONALS
RF Joey Wiemer
SS Seaver King
C Keibert Ruiz
1B Andrés Chaparro
2B José Tena
CF Robert Hassell III
LF Christian Franklin
3B Trey Lipscomb
DH Caleb Lomavita
RHP Miles Mikolas
Just got our first game look at Luis Perales, the hard-throwing right-hander acquired from the Red Sox over the winter. He's got electric stuff, averaging 99.6 and topping out at 100.5 mph with his fastball, plus a pitch that varied between 90-94 mph and registered as a cutter. The downside: Perales needed 24 pitches to get through a scoreless inning.
Not a great start to Miles Mikolas' afternoon. He gave up three hits, including a three-run homer to Brett Baty, in the top of the first. The homer and Mike Tauchman's leadoff double both came on 93-mph fastballs over the heart of the plate. Mikolas cannot afford to go there with that pitch.
In better news, Jose Tena launched a two-run homer in the bottom of the second, going to the opposite field. That's not typically his forte, so that's nice to see in this instance.