New York

Mets

In a 1-1 game, the Mets let Canning pitch to the top of the order for a third time in the sixth. They almost got away with it, too, but Yordan Alvarez doubled in Isaac Paredes with two outs. Canning definitely looks considerably better than he did last season, but he’s still not a guy who is likely to retire Yordan Alvarez three times in a row (in fact, Alvarez was 7-for-13 with two homers and three walks against him during his Angels days). Canning’s next start will come next weekend against the Blue Jays.

Taylor will get a break after starting the first two games. Jose Siri is getting the start against Spencer Arrighetti and the Houston bullpen.

Azocar went unclaimed on waivers and will remain with the organization at Triple-A Syracuse as extra outfield depth. The 28-year-ild failed to land a spot on New York’s season-opening roster, but he’s a quality depth stash in case injuries strike the big-league roster.

It didn’t take much time for Soto to make amends for a game-ending strikeout on Opening Day. He turned on a 96-mph cutter from Astros starter Hunter Brown that was up-and-in on his hands and blasted it nearly 400 feet deep into the right-field stands. Regular hitters can’t do things like that. Soto is not a regular hitter, though. It’s only been two games, but he looks comfortable and downright thrilled to be a Met.

Not that anyone needed reminding after last postseason, but Díaz remains one of the most feared closers in the league. His fastball was electric and he got Jeremy Peña to swing at a slider that was about two feet out of the strike zone. Most importantly, nearly every pitch he threw was in the strike zone. He’s a stalwart at the back of the Mets’ strong bullpen.

The Mets clearly have confidence in Megill, so maybe we should too. Command and consistency often elude Megill, but he kept all of his pitches away from the heart of the plate in this one and ran into very little trouble. He was aggressive with his fastball up in the zone, buried plenty of sinkers in on the hands of right-handed batters, and showed off a new slider that’s coming in a tick slower compared to last season with an additional five inches of drop. All in all, it was an incredibly encouraging start for a popular breakout pick and one that we all collectively hope that Megill can build off of to finally start to realize his potential. He lines up to face the Blue Jays in the Mets’ home opener next week.

The 31-year-old right-hander had inked a minor league deal with the Mets in mid-February. It’s unclear if he has another opportunity already lined up, or if he just wanted to ability to explore the open market. Overton has had some success at the game’s highest level, so he shouldn’t have any trouble finding another team willing to give him a chance.

We saw Luisangel Acuña draw the start on Opening Day against an opposing left-hander and now Baty is in there with Hunter Brown toeing the slab for the Astros on Friday night. It seems like this will be a straight platoon situation with Baty getting the strong side of the at-bats there, making him an interesting middle infield option in deeper mixed leagues for the time being.

This was rather discouraging. Holmes looked awesome all spring, but he was wild today in walking four and hitting a batter. His velocity was also down a tad; he was never going to throw as hard as a starter as he did as a reliever, but his velocity today was a little lower than it was most of the spring. Finally, he didn’t get anything out of his new changeup, throwing it a total of four times. Maybe there were some nerves involved. More will be expected when he faces the Marlins next week.

Unfortunately, the final at-bat was the memorable one today. Facing Josh Hader with the tying run on base, Soto struck out. He actually got ahead 3-0 in the plate appearance, but then he took a slider right down the middle and swung at ball four twice, with the last of those being a checked swing on a slider way off the plate.