LUGO ON MEND
Mets reliever is on track to return early in season as he recovers from elbow surgery
PORT ST. LUCIE — This slam happened to be grander than most. Pete Alonso stepped up to the plate and mashed a grand slam — his first home run of spring training — in the fifth inning of the Mets’ 8-4 win over the Nationals on Thursday. As soon as he saw the ball go over the wall in right-center field and land amongst fans sitting on the grassy knoll, Alonso had one thought.
“After the ball went over the fence I was like, ‘Yeah! It’s my mom’s birthday today,’” the first baseman said in a press conference after he came out of the game.
Alonso was very excited to wish his mom a happy birthday during his presser.
“Also, big shoutout,” Alonso, unsolicited, added at the end of one of his responses to a reporter. “Happy birthday mom! Glad I could get a birthday bomb for you.”
His parents were in the stands of Clover Park on Thursday to watch their son square up the first pitch he saw from Nationals righthander Cole Henry — a 95 mph fastball that was right in his wheelhouse.
The first baseman did not record a single home run in 14 spring training games last year, so Thursday’s grand slam was a positive sign for the Polar Bear. He said his first dinger of spring is an indication that his swing is almost where he wants it to be.
“If I hit it hard, it’s going to go a long way,” he said.
BATTLE FOR NO. 5
David Peterson made his spring debut Thursday and pitched two scoreless innings in 31 pitches. Peterson faced a jam in the first inning — after he hit Kyle Schwarber with a pitch and gave up a double to Ryan Zimmerman — but escaped and stranded both runners in scoring position.
The focus, for now, is for the southpaw to get his pitch count up and stretch out in the threeplus weeks of camp remaining. But at the back of our minds is whether Peterson will continue performing well enough for a spot in the rotation.
Peterson is competing with fellow lefthander Joey Lucchesi for the fifth starter role to open the regular season. Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, Carlos Carrasco and Taijuan Walker are all locks, otherwise, and Noah Syndergaard is due back from Tommy John rehab around June. Peterson said he had a meeting with Luis Rojas at the beginning of camp where the manager told him he wants him to compete.
“He wanted to see the hunger and the stuff that I had done in the offseason, and I told him I was ready to come in camp and fight for a spot,” Peterson said.
“That’s been the goal. I want to be helping the team win every five days and that’s what I came to do, so that’s what I’m focused on.”
The Mets are not yet close to evaluating Peterson’s position on the pitching staff, which is a luxury manager Rojas can afford this year thanks to the depth team president Sandy Alderson and GM Zack Scott shored up in the offseason.
If the team was going off Peterson’s results in his rookie year alone — when he posted a solid 3.44 ERA and went 6-2 over nine starts and 49.2 innings — his experience, poise and feel would make him the logical option for the last spot in the rotation. But the club wants to see him competing for it against Lucchesi, who has yet to make an appearance in exhibition games, Jordan Yamamoto and Jerad Eickhoff.
“It’s nice to get into camp and face guys and all that, but once you start to get into games and you face guys in a different jersey, that’s when it really starts to get fun,” Peterson said. “For me, the job was to go out there, compete and limit the other team as much as I could. I felt good about what I did today.”
CHEF DOMINIC
Dominic Smith, who went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts as the DH in his spring debut Thursday, told ESPN he planned to go hard in the kitchen ahead of the team’s off-day Friday.
Smith, tossing some ideas around, casually said he might cook a rib-eye steak, mac and cheese and grilled asparagus as part of his Thursday night dinner. He allows himself to have a larger, maybe not-so-healthy meal specifically before the team has a true day off because he wakes up feeling sluggish after hearty dinners.
The Mets return to action Saturday night in a matchup against the Astros at West Palm Beach. If Smith is in the lineup, 48 hours since gulfing down mac and cheese and a rib-eye steak should be plenty of recovery time.