Cano, Diaz Power Mets over Nats on Opening Day

METS 2 - NATIONALS 0 

1-0, and it feels so good!

Everything went according to plan for the Mets in their 2-0 victory over the Washington Nationals in DC on Thursday to open the season.  Not only did the win add to New York’s MLB best winning percentage in the opener, but a number of the integral and key pieces that made up the Mets offseason came through in the clutch.

Of course, no one had a bigger impact than Robinson Cano, who went 2-for-4 and accounted for all the runs scored on the afternoon.

It didn’t take Cano long to put his staple on the game. Taking a 1-1 change-up from Max Scherzer that hung over the middle of the plate, Cano slapped the ball over the center field wall for a solo home run to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.

For the Mets it was the opening salvo that General Manager Brodie VanWagenen was hoping for when he swung the deal last December for the former Yankees All Star.

In the eighth inning with Dominic Smith and Pete Alonso on base, Cano slapped a 91 mph sinker into shallow left to drive home Smith with the added security. 

All of Cano’s efforts proved to more then enough for New York’s $137.5 million man, Jacob deGrom who spent the better part of his day bending, but not breaking against a tricky Nationals lineup.

While deGrom’s slash line looks clean to the naked eye, allowing no runs over six innings while walking one and striking out 10, it was not that easy.  deGrom didn’t have his best stuff as he battled in out of trouble.

In the bottom of the first, deGrom gave up a single to Trea Turner and walked Juan Soto before jamming Ryan Zimmerman on a liner to third that was handled beautifully by third baseman Jeff McNeil.

After striking out the side in the bottom of the second, deGrom found himself in a jam again in the third inning.  He surrendered a leadoff double to Victor Robles and a single to Adam Eaton to put runners on the corner. deGrom fought back to strike out Turner, before inducing a 5-4-4-2-5 double-play grounder off the bat of Met killer Anthony Rendon to get out of the jam.

Finally in the sixth inning, still clinging to that 1-0 lead, deGrom found a way to work out a pair of Trea Turner stolen bases to get out of the inning unscathed.

While it wasn’t easy, it was a good first start for the reigning Cy Young Award winner.

The Mets bullpen was pretty solid. Seth Lugo was in midseason form, striking out the side in the bottom of the seventh.

Jeurys Familia once again gave Mets fans sweaty palms when he hit Eaton with a fastball to put a man on with one out, but he managed to get past the mistake, getting Turner and Rendon to both ground out to get out of the eighth.

Finally, Edwin Diaz looked the part of a big time closer in the ninth. Acquired with Cano in the Seattle Mariner trade, Diaz was 66-0 in games he pitched when Seattle had a lead last year. He’s 1-0 with the Mets after a clean bottom of the ninth.

So the off-season is officially over. The snow is gone, the temperature is going up, and the Mets are off to another fast start. Game two in D.C. on Saturday. Noah Syndergaard gets the ball for the Amazin’s.