Alonso makes strong case to stick at first

WEST PALM BEACH – Noah Syndergaard didn’t bother suppressing the heat in his Grapefruit League debut.

The flame-throwing righthander clocked in at 98 mph on the first pitch and settled in the upper-90s across two shutout innings against the Astros on Monday. Syndergaard topped out at 99 mph in the second inning as he retired the side in order. Of Syndergaard’s 23 pitches, 19 were strikes.

“If you’re not going 100% ... I know it’s early, but if you try to take a little bit off early in games like this, you put yourself more at risk for higher injury,” Syndergaard said on dialing it up on his first game. “If you got it in the tank, then I don’t see why not to get after it.”

A day after ace Jacob deGrom made his spring debut hurling 97 mph fastballs, manager Mickey Callaway said both pitchers are exactly where they need to be at this point in camp. Still, Syndergaard is always looking to improve his game.

And after watching his teammate win the topmost pitching accolade last season, Syndergaard said he’d be content competing with the utmost conviction on every single pitch, so long as it leads to a Cy Young Award on his own shelf. Yet, the Mets’ renewed energy is exciting Syndergaard the most.

“The thought of approaching this 2019 season as a whole — the pitching staff, the team, the newest acquisitions — it gives me goosebumps,” Syndergaard said. “It gets me excited. It brings me back to that feeling we had in 2015 when we made it all the way to the World Series and unfortunately fell a bit short. But I mean, it’s kind of a feeling — it’s tough to describe with words, but there’s a lot of excitement.”

There wasn’t much of that talk in 2018, as the Mets fell off quickly after a strong start. Last season, Syndergaard relied heavily on his two-seam fastball because it provided lateral movement and depth. In an attempt to mystify more batters this year, he wants to establish himself with the four-seam fastball.

“I fell in love with the twoseamer because it’s an artsy pitch,” Syndergaard said. “It’s cool when you harness it, but sometimes if you’ve got a little tweak in your mechanics, the two-seamer might move way too early in the delivery. So it ends up drifting to the middle of the plate.”

On Monday, Syndergaard gave up a leadoff hit to twotime All-Star George Springer and another single to Josh Reddick in the first inning. He worked out of trouble with help from catcher Tomas Nido, who caught Reddick attempting to steal for the second out.

The 26-year-old incorporated his four-seamer and struck out a few batters due to the elevation in the zone. Callaway said if Syndergaard feels comfortable with it and can include more four-seamers in his game, it would help the pitcher.

“He’s a perfectionist,” Callaway said. “And he wants to go out there and not give up anything at all times. From my standpoint, when he’s been out there and healthy, he’s been a top 5, 6 pitcher in the game. So if he wants to continue to improve, that’s a great attitude to have.”

WEST PALM BEACH – Pete Alonso is starting to look like a natural first baseman. That became evident when he made a few heads-up plays at the bag, but it was punctuated when Alonso anticipated highpressure situations by knowing who was at the plate. The 24-year-old battling for a starting job helped limit Houston’s damage in the Mets’ 3-3 tie Monday at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. With the bases juiced and nobody out, Alonso knew exactly where to position himself by recognizing the batter, Ronnie Dawson.

“I played with him in the Arizona Fall League,” Alonso said. “I know he’s got some thump. So I was expecting him to drop the head and turn on it a little bit. He did that and thankfully I made a good play.”

Dawson, 23, hit a low liner a few feet behind the first-base bag and Alonso, with no hesitation, extended his arm, caught the ball and stepped on the bag for the out. Yuli Gurriel was jogging home, and Alonso hit the force play to Tomas Nido at the dish to keep a run from scoring.

“It was kind of like one of those low line drives where runners tend to freeze up because they don’t want to get doubled off,” Alonso said. “It’s still a scoreless ballgame at that point, so I made the force play at home.”

The Mets’ top prospect is competing for the firstbase job alongside Todd Frazier – who has yet to appear in a Grapefruit League game. The team noted that the main reason the Mets did not call up Alonso last year, when he hit 36 homers with 119 RBI on a .975 OPS across two levels in the minors, was due to his defensive deficiency at first base.

Alonso is a student of the game and his attention to minor details allow him to migrate to the correct, textbook positions on all practiced drills – including a wacky rundown at third base on Monday. While George Springer was in a pickle between second and third, Alonso was already covering home plate to make sure the pitcher was no longer involved in the play.

Alonso took a break from patrolling the infield on Sunday and served as the designated hitter against Houston. But when he kicked the dirt around at first base on Monday and got into a rhythm, it was like he never missed a beat.

“It’s the second day playing the field and I’m already getting a little bit more comfortable,” Alonso said. “I’m seeing the ball well off the bat and I just want to keep it up.” BY DEESHA THOSAR

Thompson, the Mets’ 2015 fourth-round draft pick, was hit by a pitch in 2018 and missed most of the season in the minor leagues. When the third baseman began rehabbing, elbow issues surfaced and Thompson had surgery to remove bone spurs and chips on his left hand and elbow. He didn’t pick up a bat until September of last year. On Monday, the 25-year-old blasted a threerun homer to deep left field and tied the game at 3 in the fifth, keeping the Mets in the game. The homer ended up being the difference as the final runs the Mets would score against the Astros.

“Really good all-around athlete and baseball player,” Mickey Callaway said. “I like the way he plays the game. Like a college player that’s polished for his age.”