A new era for the New York Mets started off in promising fashion Thursday afternoon.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are hoping a familiar loss wasn’t another sign of things to come.
The Mets will try to clinch a season-opening series win Saturday afternoon when they host the Pirates in the middle of a three-game set.
Left-hander David Peterson is slated to start for the Mets against Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller in a battle of former All-Stars.
The Mets chased reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes after two outs Thursday afternoon, when they rode a five-run first inning to an 11-7 victory.
While holdover Brett Baty had the big hit in the first inning — a three-run triple that put the Mets ahead for good — New York’s newcomers all had encouraging debuts.
The quartet of Jorge Polanco, Luis Robert Jr., Marcus Semien and Carson Benge were a combined 6-for-15 with a home run, five RBIs, five walks and a stolen base. Benge, a rookie making his major league debut, accounted for a round-tripper and a theft.
Bo Bichette was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, but he embodied the Mets’ hopes for a more patient, contact-oriented offense when he lofted a first-inning sacrifice fly and battled Isaac Mattson for 13 pitches during a fifth-inning strikeout.
“It’s 162 (games), there’s going to be times where it’s going to be had, that’s the nature of the business,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “But just to see it out of the gate against one of the best pitchers in the league, it goes to show you that we’ve got some dangerous guys there. And then (they) continued to add on.”
Polanco and Bichette, who made their first big-league starts at first and third base, respectively, also had uneventful days at their new positions for the Mets, who made improving their defense a focal point of an offseason in which they parted ways with longtime lineup mainstays Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo.
Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn, who were imported to help boost a Pirates offense that finished last in the majors with 583 runs scored last season, also got off to solid starts by combining for three homers. Lowe went deep on each of his first two swings with Pittsburgh via a two-run shot in the first and a solo blast in the third before O’Hearn homered in the sixth.
But the boost provided by Lowe’s first homer didn’t last long for the Pirates, who have endured seven straight losing seasons and haven’t made the playoffs since 2015.
Oneil Cruz, who is beginning his fifth season with the Pirates, aided the Mets’ big first inning with a pair of questionable reads on consecutive hits to center field. Cruz, a converted shortstop, broke in on Baty’s fly ball instead of retreating backward before he lost Semien’s double in the sun. Cruz was the only member of the Pittsburgh outfield not wearing sunglasses.
“We need to make sure we’re prepared right there,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said.
Peterson is 0-1 with a 4.71 ERA in five career appearances (four starts) against the Pirates. Keller is 4-2 with a 2.06 ERA in six starts against the Mets.
–Field Level Media
