Mets Home Opener Was Another Loss At Citi

By Rich Mancuso/ Sports Editor

Last season the Mets finished with the worst home record in baseball. They do not want that trend to continue this year and started the first six games on the road taking five of six games from the Nationals and Marlins which paved the way for optimism Thursday afternoon at Citi Field.

Except this was not a good opening game of the home season for the Mets as the Nationals got payback from losing their home opener to the Mets last week. The Nationals got good pitching from Steven Strasburg and got the necessary hits and got the shutout 4-0 win.

Noah Syndergaard was not bad on the mound in his second start for the Mets. He did not get the necessary runs and the Mets looked like a tired team that arrived back in New York at 2am after completing a three-game sweep down in Miami over the Marlins.

Credit” Bill Menzel

Certainly one game of the next 81 at home should not be a prelude of last season. But 44,424 fans at Citi Field, the second largest crowd to view a regular season game at the ballpark, remained skeptical with those flashbacks of a team that had difficulty winning ballgames at home last year.

“Just because you get in late the night before doesn’t mean the other team’s going to take it easy on you,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. The top four hitters in the Mets lineup finished 0-for-14 with seven strikeouts which was quite a comparison from the hits and runs the Mets produced with runners in scoring position during those first six games.

The Mets may blame the schedule. The Marlins scheduled the finale of that series an hour earlier which caused the late arrival back to New York. But there was no room for excuses as baseball is played everyday and with a day off Friday the Mets expect to get the bats going again Saturday afternoon.

Other than that it was another good Opening Day to welcome the Mets back. Pre game ceremonies and the first pitch was caught by 1969 World Champion Ed Kranepool of the Bronx, and a perfect strike thrown by Gil Hodges Jr. the son of the manager who managed those “Miracle Mets” of 1969.

Hey, 81 more games at Citi Field. It can’t be as bad as last year.

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