New York Mets: Five observations from Opening Day 2019

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WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 28: Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets walks back to the dugout after the first inning against the Washington Nationals on Opening Day at Nationals Park on March 28, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /

The 2019 New York Mets season has officially begun. In game one, we already learned a little about this team.

That’s 1 game down, 161 to go for the New York Mets.

After a very long and eventful offseason, Mets baseball is back and like they so often do, the Mets won their first game of the season, edging out Max Scherzer and the rival Washington Nationals in route to a 2-0 victory.

This victory was their 38th win on Opening Day in the last 50 Opening Day games, which is the best record across all MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL teams in that same 50-year span.

With that said, as Mets fans unfortunately know, how the team performs in the first game of the year is not necessarily indicative of how the team will perform for the entirety of the season, as while they have the best opening season record in the past 50 years, the team has only made the playoffs 9 times over that same stretch.

Still, today’s game can be viewed as a preview of potential things to come, and there a few notable takeaways Mets fans all saw in today’s game.

Here are the 5 biggest observation from Mets 2019 Opening Day.

1) Jacob deGrom is still very good

Coming off of a career year in 2018, in which deGrom led the league in ERA with a stellar 1.70 and won the NL Cy Young Award, expectations coming into the 2019 season are higher than they have ever been for him.

After signing a 5-year extension with the club earlier in the week, fans were eager to see New York’s ace’s first start of the season, seeking vindication that the Mets are going to get a good return on their new investment in deGrom.

It’s safe to say that they were not disappointed.

DeGrom picked up right where he left off last season, pitching 6 shutout innings on 93 pitches, allowing 5 hits and 1 walk while striking out 10 batters. This start set a new Major League Record for deGrom, as it was the 30th straight start where he only allowed three runs or fewer.

While he performed excellently over those 6 innings, this start was not perfect, as deGrom did run into trouble a few times during the game.

Particularly, in the 3rd inning, deGrom was stuck in a situation with runners on first and third and only 1 out, and after getting a ground ball to get the force out at second base, if it were not for a heads up play by new Met, Robinson Cano, to throw the ball home and catch Victor Robles in a rundown, he may have given up the run.

Speaking of Cano…

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 28: Robinson Cano #24 of the New York Mets celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the first inning against the Washington Nationals on Opening Day at Nationals Park on March 28, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /

2) Robinson Cano also looked very good

As previously mentioned, Cano made an excellent defensive play in the 3rd inning which potentially saved the Mets from allowing a run and losing their one-score lead.

Prior to that, in his first at-bat for the Mets, Cano hit a solo home run to left-center field off of Scherzer, the runner-up for the 2018 Cy Young award, giving the Mets a one-run lead, which turns out was all they needed to win the game.

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His home-run in the 1st inning was the first time since Mike Jacobs in 2005 that a player hit a home run in their first at-bat with the Mets.

Additionally, in the 8th inning, Cano drove in a second run on a base hit off of Matt Grace, a left-handed pitcher, to give help extend the Mets’ lead to 2-0.

Cano was arguably the biggest acquisition the Mets made this off-season, as the Mets traded for him hoping to be the anchor of the lineup and a player who could consistently help the team manufacture runs, which was an area they struggled with last year.

In just his first game alone, Cano accounted for the only 2 runs for the Mets the entire game and saved a run from being scored in the 3rd inning, helping to secure the win for the team against their division rivals.

While we still have 161 games left to play and we’ll need more than just one good game from Cano in order to make the post-season, I’m hopeful this is a good sign of things to come.

3) Pete Alonso’s potential is not a secret around the league

Firstly, congratulations to Alonso on his debut and for recording his first major league hit in today’s game.

Alonso’s first hit came in his fourth at-bat of the day off of reliever Justin Miller in the game’s 8th inning. However, over his first three at-bats, he was unable to record a hit off of Max Scherzer.

Scherzer is one of baseball’s premier pitchers, and even a veteran player getting a hit off of him is a difficult task, so it’s no surprise that the rookie Alonso struggled against him.

It is important to note that Scherzer pitched very carefully against Alonso, and did not give him many pitches to hit. Normally against rookie hitters, especially in their first game, pitchers tend to just pound fastballs down the plate to get an easy strikeout, but this was not the case.

Scherzer threw mainly sliders away from Alonso during their first at-bat, and Alonso managed to work him to a full count before he eventually struck out.

This shows that despite the fact that he is new to the league and that this was his first game, Alonso’s power and potential as a hitter is known to the league, and they are aware that despite his inexperience, he won’t be an easy out.

The fact that Scherzer pitched to him so carefully shows that he already has a reputation around the league, and it’s likely that if that Nationals are doing this so early in the year, then the other teams will likely be cautious when facing him in the future.

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 28: Trea Turner #7 of the Washington Nationals steals second base against Amed Rosario #1 of the New York Mets in the first inning on Opening Day at Nationals Park on March 28, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /

4) The Mets still struggle against base-stealers

While there were a lot of positives coming out of today’s game, there were a few negatives as well.

One of the most glaring issues the team faced was their inability to throw out base-stealers, as they allowed 3 stolen bases during their first game of the season, all to the same player, Trea Turner.

Turner is one of the best speedsters in the game today, as he led the league in 2018 with 43 stolen bases, so giving up a steal to him is nothing to be ashamed of, but the fact that he swiped three bags on the Mets today, including one going from second to third base, is a bad sign for the team.

Last season, the Mets allowed the third most steals in the league, letting opposing players swipe 130 bags on them in 2018.

While the ability to protect against stolen bases can vary depending on who is on the mound, the fact that the Mets let up 3 steals with their best pitcher on the mound, this could be an omen that one of the biggest issues from last season may still be a factor in 2019 as well.

5) The bullpen looks good

Let’s end this list on a good note.

While deGrom performed terrifically in his first game of the new campaign, the bullpen was very impressive as well.

After deGrom exited the game following the 6th inning, Seth Lugo entered the game and struck out the side in his one inning of work. Jeurys Familia was a bit shaking in his first appearance in his return to the Mets, hitting the second batter he faced, but managed to get through the 8th inning unscathed.

Our new All-Star closer Edwin Diaz took the mound for the first time with the Mets in the 9th inning, and after he recorded a league-leading 57 save in 2018, expectations were high for Diaz in his debut for the Orange and Blue.

Diaz closed out the game in 14 pitches, and he particularly impressed me with his high 90s fastball. To close out the game, Diaz got 2 fly balls to right field for the first two batters he faced before striking out Matt Adams to secure New York’s first win of the year.

Last season, the bullpen was a major issue for the Mets. The combined ERA for New York’s relievers in 2018 was a whopping 4.96, ranked 28th best out of 30 teams.

The fact that the bullpen was able to be so dominant while facing such a talented lineup in a promising sign for the Mets going forward. Now we just need to hope that these three pitchers, along with the rest of the bullpen remain consistent long-term for New York, helping to preserve our leads in close games after quality starts from our starters, such as the one we saw from deGrom.

Anyway, that’s 1 game down, 161 to go.

Worst Mets to start on Opening Day at each position since 2000. Next

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