As the Mets prepare for a pair of tune-up games against the Yankees this weekend, Marcus Stroman took to the mound in Friday's sim game searching for what manager Luis Rojas termed as “a little more consistency.”
“I thought from the start of the game, he was feeling his pitches,” Rojas said. “His pitches to Dom [Smith] were nasty. He got Dom when he blended in that cutter and threw that changeup in the dirt. He pitched really good the first time through the order.”
But once that lineup turned over, both Smith and Amed Rosario got to the 29-year-old right-hander, touching him up for back-to-back homers. Rosario ripped a line-drive bullet over the wall in left, while Smith sent a deep fly over the fence in right-center.
“Rosey and Dom were able to track him down and find their pitches,” Rojas said. “Credit for a great approach, tracking him down and paying attention to the game to get a good pitch to hit.”
Despite the hiccup in his final inning of work, Rojas was happy with Stroman’s three-inning performance overall.
“I thought he threw the ball well,” Rojas said. “He was consistent. He was spotting pitches where he wanted to and feeling his secondary pitches. He relies a lot on movement and I thought he was getting that. We were seeing it from the side view that there was some downward action and guys were chasing pitches.”
According to Rojas, Stroman ended his outing at “close to 60 pitches” before heading to the bullpen to throw another 20.
“Right now he's where we wanted him to finish,” Rojas said.