HOUSTON — Luisangel Acuña impressed throughout his 14-game huge league stint final September, and with the Mets unable to land a utility infielder in time for Opening Day, the 23-year-old will get an opportunity to indicate that these 14 video games weren’t an aberration.
Nonetheless, he’s already off to a tough begin.
One of many membership’s prime prospects, the Mets named him to their Opening Day roster Thursday and hit him eighth in opposition to the Houston Astros. Acuña went 0-for-3 with a stroll, wanting overmatched on the plate at occasions, but in addition exhibiting resolve, particularly with a stroll within the prime of the ninth to load the bases with no outs.
Nonetheless, he made an error at second base that price the Mets a run.
Down 2-0 within the backside of the third with two on and one out, Jeremy Peña rolled over on a sweeper, sending a ground-ball to Francisco Lindor for what ought to have been an inning-ending double play. Lindor flipped it to Acuña at second, however the infielder airmailed it to first, overthrowing Pete Alonso by a couple of mile.
“It was just a bad throw,” stated supervisor Carlos Mendoza. “He had time, and he just threw it away.”
The SNY broadcast confirmed infield coach Mike Sarbaugh speaking to Acuña within the dugout in between innings. There have been different occasions when it appeared like Acuña was sluggish getting the ball out of his glove, particularly on double-play balls, although Mark Vientos did join with him within the fourth inning for a 5-4-3 double-play.
Nonetheless, in a vital second of the sport, Acuña got here via. Dealing with left-handed nearer Josh Hader, the 23-year-old infielder fell behind 0-2, earlier than battling again to work the rely full in a 12-pitch at-bat. He fouled off seven of the 12 pitches, making Hader work. Lastly, Hader missed with a sinker for ball 4 to stroll Acuña and cargo the bases.
Two batters later, Lindor scored Starling Marte on a sacrifice fly, ending the Astros’ shutout bid. The Mets had been unable to finish the comeback, however the Mets had been nonetheless inspired by Acuña’s at-bat.
“That’s what you want to see, especially out of a young player,” Mendoza stated. “He’s 0-for-3, makes an error, and then he’s facing one of the best closers in the game. And for him to have an at-bat like that says a lot. That ability to move on to the next play, next pitch, next up, next inning, he showed that today.”
There’s nonetheless some concern {that a} lack of taking part in time as a utility infielder will hinder his improvement, particularly when he’s so near being big-league prepared. The Mets plan to mitigate that by platooning him at second base with Brett Baty, who traditionally has struggled in opposition to left-handed pitching. It gained’t be a straight platoon, with the Mets planning to provide Baty loads of at-bats in opposition to left-handers, nevertheless it’s one technique to get Acuña taking part in time.
It’s why he was within the lineup for Opening Day, however with two right-handers slated to pitch for the Astros on Friday and Saturday, the Mets anticipate Baty to be again within the lineup.
BAD BOUNCES
Within the fifth inning, with slow-footed catcher Luis Torrens on second base, Framber Valdez threw a changeup to Juan Soto that bounced previous catcher Yainer Diaz to the backstop. Soto motioned for Torrens to advance to 3rd, however Diaz was capable of make the throw to 3rd baseman Isaac Paredes in loads of time.
Operating into outs on the basepaths isn’t a very good factor, and the Mets had been already down 3-0 with two outs within the inning. Sending a sluggish catcher won’t be the correct choice there, however Torrens might need had sufficient time had the ball not taken the hop that it did, bouncing proper again to Diaz after he popped out of his crouch.
“Just a bad break there,” Mendoza stated. “Especially after he gave the hit sign there. It didn’t hit the [back] wall, and it just bounced back to the catcher. Usually you don’t see that in this ballpark.”
UP NEXT
The SNY crew will get a break for the remainder of the sequence, resuming their season subsequent week in Miami. AppleTV+ will carry the Friday recreation and Saturday night time’s sequence finale shall be on FOX.
Initially Revealed: March 27, 2025 at 4:53 PM EDT
