Mets lose to Nationals 9-3 but story is Bryce Harper debut

By Gary W. Marchese Jr.

Port St. Lucie, FL (Feb 28) – The New York Mets lost on Monday afternoon to the Washington Nationals by a score of 9-3. That was not the story though as phenom Bryce Harper debuted for the Nationals, he had a quiet day striking out twice but the buzz on this young player is unreal. He has been compared to Mickey Mantle, Harper is only 17 years old, but he thinks he can make the team right now. The Nationals of course are not going to rush him but if he tears through the minors who know when he could be up in the majors maybe sometime next season.

Mike Pelfrey was the starting pitcher for the Mets and pitched three innings giving up five hits and two runs with only one earned, he struck out one batter. D.J. Carrasco made his Mets debut and it was not a good one giving up four hits and two runs with a walk in two innings of action. Jason Isringhausen had a nice return to the team he began his career with. Isringhausen is trying to resurrect his career and had a scoreless inning, Taylor Tankersley had an interesting inning giving up three hits and three runs but striking out the side.

Michael O’Conner pitched one inning giving up one hit; Ryota Igarashi pitched one inning and gave up one hit and two runs with a walk and two strikeouts.

Angel Pagan on the day he found out he will be the centerfielder with Carlos Beltran moving over to right field had a hit and an RBI. Nick Evans had a hit, Fernando Martinez had two hits, and he has looked great so far this spring.

Daniel Murphy had a hit and so did Mike Nickeas and Dusty Ryan. Scott Hairston drew the only walk of the game for the Mets.

The Mets are now 1-1-1 on the spring and will head to Viera to take on the Nationals. Francisco Rodriguez will see his first action since last August when he had the fight with his girlfriend’s father. The Nationals announced that Harper would play in his second straight game coming in as a defensive replacement.

Posted by gmarchesej on March 1, 2011. Filed under Mets,MLB News,News and Sports with Gary W. Marchese Jr.,Sports,US Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.