Your Monday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
The Mets won the rubber game against the Marlins yesterday by the score of 4-0. Dillon Gee pitched eight shutout innings, and Chris Young paced the offense with a two-run dinger.
Recap Parade: Amazin' Avenue, MLB.com, ESPN NY, New York Times, Daily News, Post, The Star-Ledger
Gee's outstanding start should help to convince the coaching staff that he can be trusted to pitch deep into games.
Injury news: Juan Lagares went 1-for-4 with a strikeout while playing center field for St. Lucie on Sunday. He is on track to join the Mets sometime during the upcoming road swing. Meanwhile, Wilmer Flores jammed a finger in Las Vegas' latest game and left after three innings.
Right now, pitching is the name of the game for the Mets, but David Wright anticipates that the offense will get going once it escapes the cold and wind of Citi Field. With Philadelphia and Colorado up next on the schedule, the hitting will probably warm up before the weather does.
After a map of Facebook data revealed last week that Mets fans are a minority in every zip code in America, The New York Times investigates the neighborhood around Citi Field to see why that might be.
If baseball were more like pro wrestling, the Mets would be in possession of the championship belt! Also, Kyle Farnsworth would be a much more valuable player.
Around the NL East
The Phillies shutout the Diamondbacks thanks to eight dominant innings from A.J. Burnett.
Speaking of great pitching performances, Atlanta's Julio Teheran hurled on on Sunday, but he was matched zero for zero by Reds ace Johnny Cueto. The Bravesfinally prevailed 1-0 in the 10th inning on a Freddie Freeman walk-off base hit.
Nationals rookie relief pitcher Aaron Barrett walked in two San Diego runs with the bases loaded yesterday. The Padres won 4-2, but Washington should be getting Doug Fister back in its rotation soon. The veteran looked solid during his recent rehab start.
Around the Majors
The signing of Cuban import Jose Abreu is really paying off for the White Sox. On Sunday, he hit his 10th home run of the young season and already has 31 RBI. Both figures lead the majors.
In Baltimore's 9-3 loss to Kansas City, Orioles outfielder David Lough showed his old team what it was missing with one of the best catches of the season.
As if just to play into the idea that New York's athletes are under more pressure than those in other parts of the country, Robinson Cano said he is feeling more relaxed now that he's in Seattle. The Mariners are 9-13 for the season.
The Blue Jays set an MLB record with six players in their starting lineup from the Dominican Republic.
Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw isn't happy about having to make another rehab start in his process of coming back from back inflammation. The good news is that MLB should have one of its finest players back in action soon.
Former Cub Matt Garza's advice to current Cub Jeff Samardzjia: "Just pitch your way out of [Chicago]." That might not be in the best advice considering Chicago's promising farm system, but Samardzija could be getting dealt soon either way.
Yesterday at AA
Dillon Gee just pitched a great game, and today is his birthday! He's now 28 years old.
On this date in 1962, Frank Thomas and Charlie Neal became the first Mets to hit back-to-back home runs.