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Wilmer And Nimmo Homer As St. Lucie Mets Win A Slugfest

By Ernest Dove

April 30, 2017 21 Comments

Photo by Ernest Dove

Photo by Ernest Dove

It was a cloudy day in Port St Lucie. The wind was blowing and the balls were flying as the St Lucie Mets defeated the Clearwater Threshers 6-5 thanks in large part to two MLB Mets playing in rehab games.

After the Threshers scored in the first the St Lucie Mets quickly got on the board in the bottom of the inning when leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo smoked a ball to left center over the wall on a 3-1 pitch. Nimmo, who looked good at the plate throughout the day, followed with a single in his next at bat before going on to finish the game 2 for 5.  Nimmo made solid contact in all 4 other ABs in this one while playing as the DH.

Photo By Ernest Dove

Photo By Ernest Dove

It was a rough day for Craig Missigman of the Mets. It was a bullpen using type of game from the start with Craig getting the ball first for the Mets. Missigman lasted 2 2/3 inn giving up four hits, two earned runs and two walks to go with four strikeouts.

The hitters appeared to be squaring up fully on his fastball, with radar gun showing him sitting 89-90 MPH. The positive on Missigman appears to be a solid breaking pitch, which he started going to almost exclusively towards the end of outing. But overall his fastball was giving up solid hits on all four guys who hit off him to get on base including a homer.

The opposing team went on to hit homers in the 2nd and 5th innings off Missigman and later Adam Atkins before the St. Lucie Mets scored their second run of the game off a soft looping single dumped into right field by the diminutive one Mr Anthony Domino.

Photo By Ernest Dove

Photo By Ernest Dove

Dimino, playing as the teams catcher today, finished 3 for 5 on the day, all looping singles over the heads of the fielders to go with two RBI.  One of which put the team within one in the 5th and the other gave the Mets a 4-3 lead in the 7th. Defensively, I noticed that Dimino had a strong accurate arm but still allowed a couple of stolen bases on the day.

Photo By Ernest Dove

Photo By Ernest Dove

Prior to the Dimino tie breaking single in the 7th, Jhoan Urena singled on a live drive to right field to initially tie the game up. Urena had another solid game at the plate, going 3 for 4 with a walk to go with the RBI. All 3 singles by Urena were line drives, two on the ground opposite field and one pulled to right on his RBI single.

Urena, despite an apparent mistake in judgment during the game on a liner near the bag that perhaps he thought was going foul, also later made a solid play to his right and threw a dart to first for an out. I mention this because I have past written about possible concerns for arm strength. It’s also worth mentioning that Jhoan Urena, despite his size and bulk, continues to show a quickness on the bases, including stealing his 5th base of the year.

After the St. Lucie Mets gave up the lead again, another homer (theme of the day with wind blowing out to LF) off reliever Johnny Magliozzi, our very own Mets cult hero Wilmer Flores hit an absolute bomb off an opposing lefty who was touching 95 MPH on the gun. I found out later that one of his hits was later changed to an error (ball was scorched down 3B line and the third baseman saw it pop out of his glove). Wilmer still finished 3 for 5 with that homer, single, double and 2 RBI. Everything Wilmer hit was hard off the bat.

Also of note in the game was that John Mora, an outfield prospect I have thought highly of last year, had a solid game at the plate and in the field. Mora went 2 for 4, with another walk (he’s had some really good ABs with walks in games I’ve seen) and he made a highlight reel diving catch playing right field.

Pitching wise, Adam Atkins has a nice sidearm action in his delivery, touching 90-91 MPH on his fastball to go with a nice looking offspeed pitch (when he had command of it) which sat around 80 MPH. Atkins went two innings giving up three hits, one homer and three strikeouts.

I wanted to second guess the gun on him, but gold star of the day for the pitching staff of the Mets was lefty Kevin Canelon and his 86-87 MPH fastball/ 78-82 MPH offspeed stuff keeping the hitters off balance overall going 2 1/3 inn giving up one hit and one earned run with two strikeouts.

Magliozzi has the dubious honor of blowing the potential save opportunity and instead earning the win on the day.

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