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The Mets cruised to victory in a road game as they visited the Astros in West Palm Beach this afternoon, and Nolan McLean was unsurprisingly the star of the show in his first spring training appearance.

• McLean struck out six, walked one, and gave up just one hit in four scoreless innings of work.
• Robert Stock was nearly as impressive as McLean, as he blanked the Astros for three innings himself as he took over for McLean. And he struck out six batters without walking anyone and gave up just one hit.
• Anderson Severino and Ben Simon threw a scoreless inning each to finish the shutout.
• Tyrone Taylor hit a three-run home run early in the game as he got the start in center field.
• Marcus Semien went 2-for-3 with a run scored and a run batted in.
• Bo Bichette went 1-for-3 with a double.

The Mets’ next Grapefruit League game is set for 1:05 PM EST tomorrow as they visit the Cardinals in Jupiter. Freddy Peralta is set to make his spring training debut in that one, and your only option for tuning in will be the Cardinals’ radio broadcast if you are so inclined.

The main offseason talking point concerning the Yankees has concerned the phrase “running it back.” Is it a good thing? Is it the greatest misstep in franchise history? Well, a nearly Opening Day-vintage Yankee lineup looked more than ready to do damage this afternoon, as they plated five runs in the first inning en route to a 7-3 victory over the Braves. Jazz Chisholm Jr., Paul Goldschmidt, and Spencer Jones hit home runs, while Elmer Rodríguez provided three more quality innings on the mound.

If you blinked, you may have missed Rodríguez’s first inning. He got Brett Wisely to pop to left on his first pitch of the afternoon, induced a grounder to first from Nacho Alvarez Jr. two pitches later, then got Triple-A Scranton alum Dom Smith on a check-swing tapper in front of the mound. The whole affair took seven pitches.

Unlike his first start, the Bombers gave Rodríguez substantial run support in the home first. Chisholm faced old friend Carlos Carrasco with two men out and Aaron Judge on first, and sent a sky-high drive out to right field. In right field, long-ago Baby Bomber Ben Gamel had a shot to make the catch, but it bounced off the top of the wall and into the stands for a two-run homer.

Goldschmidt and Austin Wells kept the inning alive with consecutive base hits, giving Ryan McMahon a run-producing opportunity. Carrasco kept getting to the precipice of leaving the inning, but strike three was elusive. From 0-2 down, McMahon worked the count full, then slashed an opposite-field double down the line to plate both runners and double the Yankee lead.

McMahon also made third on an errant throw to the cutoff man. That only made the trot home easier when José Caballero spanked an offering from alliterative new pitcher Shay Schanaman in a similar spot for a double of his own. All run-producing hits came with two strikes and two outs. Ninth-place hitter Seth Brown finally popped out to conclude the frame.

After such a quick top half and lengthy bottom half, it could have been easy for Rodríguez to lose his command a bit in the second inning. Not so for the steady righty, who struck out the leadoff hitter Gamel. After a nice pick from McMahon at third, Rodríguez got DaShawn Keirsey Jr. to swing through a low fastball to retire the side.

Carrasco went right back out in the second thanks to the myriad delights of spring training. Go figure, he retired the top of the Yankee order on eight pitches. That included a backwards-K on Judge, who unsuccessfully challenged the third strike pitch. Much hay has been made about low strikes on Judge, but he certainly had no case there.

Rodríguez got into a jam in the third, allowing runners on the corners with one out. Back-to-back brilliant changeups struck out Wisely, then faced Alvarez with a chance to wiggle out unscathed. But a 1-2 sinker caught too much plate, and Alvarez roped it to right for a double to score both baserunners and end Rodríguez’s scoreless spring. He rebounded quickly to retire Smith and preserve a 5-2 lead.

Thankfully for Rodríguez, the Yankees offense came to play today. Paul Goldschmidt got one of those runs right back by taking Elieser Hernández deep to left for his second home run of the spring.

Camilo Doval got some work in the fourth inning replacing Rodríguez, whose line closed at three innings, two earned runs on two hits, four strikeouts, and a walk. Doval was greeted rudely by Gamel, who connected for a home run to right field to restore the three-run margin. Doval pitched around a pesky Keirsey, who stole second and took third on a wild pitch.

Rule 5 draftee Cade Winquest was called upon to pitch the fifth, as this hodgepodge Braves lineup tried to find its footing. They started well, picking up consecutive singles against Winquest, but the righty forced a key double play before setting Smith aside for a scoreless frame. He grabbed two more outs in the sixth without incident before being relieved. It looks like the Yankees would love to use him in a multi-inning role; that flexibility would be useful, especially considering that some of the Yankees’ rotational arms aren’t famous for pitching deep into ballgames.

No February party at Steinbrenner Field without a nuke off the bat of Spencer Jones. However you feel about his chances to stick in the majors, his power remains tantalizing. And with his new Shohei Ohtani-style toe tap, he looks the part. This particular blast traveled 401 feet out to right field and into the parking lot, giving the Yankees a 7-3 lead in the seventh.

That would be our final score from Steinbrenner Field, as Michael Arias retired the Braves in order in the ninth to seal the Yankees’ fifth win of the Grapefruit League schedule.

Tomorrow, Luis Gil will leapfrog Carlos Lagrange and make his second start of the spring as the Yankees hit the road to face the Twins. Cole Sands will be his opponent, with first pitch set for the usual 1:05 pm ET timeslot on the Gotham Sports App.

Box Score

The Braves didn’t really intend to make Thursday afternoon’s exhibition contest in Tampa a competitive one — they sent a bunch of backups as their position player contingent, gave Carlos Carrasco the start, and had a pitching slate of “guys who complete innings because the regular crew can’t add a full month of workload to their ledgers and hope to survive the season.”

It went basically as expected against a lineup that started with a bunch of Yankees regulars.

Carlos Carrasco was, well, kind of what you’d expect against a lineup with a bunch of Yankees regulars. He walked Aaron Judge, gave up a cheapie lofted-down-the-line homer to Jazz Chisholm Jr., and then got knocked around, ball-in-play variety. The Braves lifted him when it was 4-0 and fill-in Schay Schanaman was greeted with another double that made it 5-0.

Carrasco actually came back to pitch a clean second, where he struck out Judge on an ABS-confirmed changeup that was very plainly in the zone. Still, it wasn’t exactly a resurgent outing for the veteran, given the 1/1 K/BB ratio, the early exit, and the fact that was mostly just tossing it over to get whacked in his first inning of work.

The rest of the Atlanta pitching slate was pretty boring: Elieser Hernandez, Taylor Scott, Austin Pope, and Anthony Molina. Hernandez ate three innings, striking out just one batter (but walking none), though he was taken deep by Paul Goldschmidt. A few innings later, Spencer Jones absolutely obliterated Austin Pope’s mislocated 93 mph four-seamer for a majestic 400-plus-foot blast to right. All in all, Atlanta pitching had just a 4/2 K/BB ratio and got tagged for three longballs — but none of these guys are really in the running to make the roster or serve as anything other than emergency depth in 2026, so whatever.

Offensively, the Atlanta backups-slash-fringy-guys-that-maybe-make-the-roster-if-someone-else-gets-hurt at least had a few nice moments. Nacho Alvarez Jr. knocked in a couple with a hard-hit grounder double down the right-field line. Ben Gamel absolutely unloaded on a pitch from Camilo Doval for a no-doubter solo shot. Chadwick Tromp reached base twice (though he was thrown out — maybe — trying to stretch his hit into a double). Yankees pitching put together an 11/1 K/BB ratio, which isn’t necessarily surprising given the lineup the Braves sent over to Tampa.

Tomorrow, the Braves will host the Red Sox, and the newly-sworded Chris Sale will get another tune-up against his erstwhile club.

Spring Training is the time of the year where players knock off the frost from the offseason and prepare for the 162 games marathon that is the regular season. For hitters, it means getting used to seeing big league velocity and breaking balls, as well as getting live fielding reps, and for pitchers it means tinkering with new pitches and refining old ones. While the majority of baseball fans understand that stats during Spring Training don’t necessarily matter all that much, it can still be difficult to not overreact when a player is struggling, especially very close to Opening Day.

An example of a player who currently has the Nationals fanbase anxious is Dylan Crews, who went 0-2 with 2 strikeouts and an error in last nights game to bring him to 1-7 on the spring. To some, this start to the spring for Crews isn’t worth discussing, as he could be working on any number of things to improve his approach for the season, which means some hiccups now. For others, this start is concerning because it is a continuation of the struggles we’ve seen from Crews for quite some time against big league pitching.

So, what numbers that come from Spring Training should fans pay attention to, and which ones should they just throw out? It’s important first to understand that early in the spring, especially in a year like this one for the Nationals where it’s an entirely new coaching staff, players are going to struggle.

Stars like James Wood and CJ Abrams aren’t going to be hitting at their usual clip for a few weeks or so, and that’s because they’re likely being challenged by this new coaching staff to try new things at the plate, such as a more refined plate approach for Abrams or pulling more fly balls for Wood. In general, it’s best to just ignore statistical performance in Spring Training, as there is no proof of any significant correlation to regular season success, but especially this spring, when every player has something new they are attempting to add or change in their game.

What fans should care about during games this spring is for players to make sharp improvements in categories such as exit velocity or metrics, as those are quantifiable ways to show an improvement in their game which could translate to the rest of the year. A recent example of this is Ben Rice, first baseman for the New York Yankees, who put himself on the radar last Spring Training by eclipsing his previous career high exit velocity multiple times in one spring.

Whether it was by adding strength to his frame or a mechanical adjustment, this boost gave the Yankees the confidence to make him their Opening Day first baseman, and he’s done nothing but rake since for them, with one of the cleanest batted ball profiles in the sport.

Pitching wise, fans should be on the lookout for pitchers adding new pitches to their arsenals or making velocity or movement improvements to their other ones, as those are skills which could translate to regular season action, unlike their ERA in those spring outings. An example of this would be to watch out for Cade Cavalli and his new sweeper, which he did not debut quite yet in his first, or for another Nat to come out and add a few more MPH on their fastball than they’d previously had.

If there’s one piece of advice I could give, it would be to not worry too much about how players are performing over the course of the next month. One month of games where these hitters take 2 at bats or starters pitch 2 innings is not a large enough sample size to draw any conclusions from, especially when almost all these players are trying new things that they hope to incorporate into their game come April. Leave the overreactions for Opening Day, and enjoy baseball being back for the next few weeks.

Recap disclaimer – this may be more a random observations list than a specific blow-by-blow of the game. Spring training results are unimportant, right? It’s the process, after all.

Pre-Game Notes

From my wanderings around the back fields. And introductory tour of the media service room, et. al., as I picked up my press pass.

• Pitching plan – Liberatore starts today, to be followed by Shuster, Romero, Raquet, Romero
• I note that Dobbins is out of the rehab group and in with a pitching group now. Suspecting he has gotten full clearance then?
• Herrera at DH, Sags in LF today
• Bit of a local connection to this game … a kid from my neighborhood, Kellen Strahm, is starting RFer for the Astros. Total trivia … he was the QB for Sheldon High School (we put 5 kids through there) just before … Justin Herbert (you may have heard of him), another neighborhood kid. Kellen made a couple nice catches out there.

Pre-game w/ Oli

• On camera
  • Sags – will get some time in left and center.
  • Walker – sees/hears more productive and mature communications, positive on his direction
  • Spring culture … overall this is a more connected group, many in the same boat and will play together for a while
• Off camera – way more informal
  • Talked super utility role – Zobrist/Figgins/et.al., personality, staying and being ready for multiple positions, more intentional about fitting this role now than before. Once a guy realizes he is not going to be that everyday guy at a single spot, then the drive to stay drives a guy to adapt
  • Update on Herrera throwing … throwing to all bases. Good carry on his throws. Getting better. Hope to DH today, catch on Sunday.
  • Discussed six-man rotation logistics through spring. Will need backfield games to do this.
  • Urias should be on the field tomorrow for his first spring exposure.

Game Observations

• Libby looked pretty well. 51 pitches in 3 innings. Command was not totally sharp (typical for February). Ball seemed to being coming out of his hand really well. Used a good variety of pitches.
• Walker got plenty of business in right. Continues to look more fluid out there. Displayed a strong arm.
• Winn with a couple nifty defensive plays. We’ve come to expect that as routine from him. He seems to be moving well after off-season knee surgery.
• Romero dispatched the Astros quickly in the 4th.
• Pozo golfs a wind-aided homerun. There is a new 2-deck club area built around the LF foul pole that appears to introduce some new wind dynamics down there. LFers beware!
• Burleson crushes a 3-run HR.
• Late inning power, with a lot of pop from Jon Jon Gazdar boosted the Cardinal offense.

Post-Game Notes

• Final score 9-4 Cardinals. 4 home runs (Pozo, Burleson, Crooks and Gazdar).
• Raquet, Blewitt and Shuster each game up runs in relief. Moreno had pretty nice 9th inning.
• The catcher Yerzy seemed pretty strong defensively, especially his arm. I haven’t seen him before, but will watch for more now.
• Game temp in the high 70’s. A few clouds, but a great day all around.

With their being no A’s baseball yesterday, my afternoon was spent cranking out all four episodes of FX’s Love Story. Not sure if any of you are tuning in to the dramatized retelling of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s relationship, but I must admit – – not terrible. Definitely not great by any means, but it’s got an aesthetic that I think a lot of people have been wanting to see more of in TV and film. I also wasn’t alive in the 1990s so I totally missed the moment it’s looking to capture. Which makes it more interesting to me. All I knew about JFK Jr. going in was that he dressed cool, had great hair, and died in a plane crash at the end of the decade. July 16th 1999 was the day that, according to my Nana and resident Shea Langeliers fan, the world stopped and cried at the news of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s passing. Now I’m not saying she’s wrong or misinformed by any means, but July 16th 1999 was also a day worth celebrating. Why you ask? Well, a trip to baseball reference taught me that the A’s beat the Giants that day, 4-2, in Oakland, in front of a crowd of about 45,000 people. Jason Giambi went deep off of Russ Ortiz. So did Ben Grieve. Gil Heredia provided 7.1 innings of one run ball. The relief tandem of Buddy Groom and Billy Taylor held down the fort from there, securing the series win against the Giants.

Sounds like a pretty good day to me. For the Kennedy family? Not so much. Unless they were A’s heads like the rest of us.

I tried to locate the broadcast of that game, to see if there was any mention of the plane crash, but had no success. If any of you taped it, and still have that tape in your possession, do not hesitate to reach out. In the meantime, I’ll have A’s vs Rangers fired up, anxiously anticipating not only tonight’s episode of Love Story, but the A’s first win of the spring!

Going into today’s game, the A’s have been outscored 33-4! Yikes! Not want you want to see, especially when the biggest narrative around the A’s going into the Cactus League was how the offense was going to be potent, but the pitching staff lackluster. One of those things has been true. Not the one you want unfortunately. Thankfully today’s a new day, the team is well rested, and my boy Jack Perkins is on the bump. I’m curious to see how they handle Perkins this spring. Chances are he’ll spend the bulk of the regular season coming out of the bullpen, possibly even closing. Today, however, will be a chance for him to run through his starting pitching rituals. That being said, I can’t imagine he’ll go more than a couple of innings.

Let’s check out the lineup behind him!

As you can see, the Stickman Nick Kurtz lead-off experiment is in full effect today. Everyone that follows is expected to make the big league club, so let’s see how they fare against Cal Quantrill and the Texas Rangers.

It’s a split squad day for the Rangers. Some of their heavy hitters such as Wyatt Langford, Corey Seager, and Josh Smith will be off facing the Milwaukee Brewers. Look closely at their lineup against the A’s and you’ll catch a trio of familiar faces. Leading off is Tyler Wade, who was with the club in 2023. Jonah Bride, who the A’s drafted in the 23rd round back in 2018, is occupying the DH spot. Former A’s first rounder Richie Martin Jr. mans the hot corner. It’s been a rough decade for Martin Jr. A cup of coffee with the Baltimore Orioles has been his only real taste of the show. Even then, he hasn’t donned a big league uni since 2022. The Texas Rangers are club number six for the infielder. He’ll be looking to get a little revenge against the A’s today, on this beautiful Thursday afternoon in Mesa, Arizona.

Live from Hohokam Stadium – – it’s the (0-4) A’s against the (4-2) Rangers!

Make yourself a sandwich and enjoy the game. I’ll be putting a Philly cheesesteak to work, hanging onto every Jack Perkins sinker like it’s Game 162.