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EspañolThe Mets' spring training plan of stretching Tobias Myers out as a starter continued on Saturday afternoon as the right-hander toed the rubber in the top of the first inning against the Washington Nationals for the first time in camp and ended his outing after three innings of one-run ball.
Myers allowed two hits, both in the third inning, walked one and struck out four while throwing 46 pitches (34 strikes). Through two appearances, Myers has a 1.69 ERA in 5.1 innings.
But it wasn't the results that Myers was most pleased with after the game; it was how he felt during and after the game that Myers was most pleased with.
"It felt good, definitely felt good," he said. "Body felt like it was under control, like I’m not trying to do too much out there, so I feel like when I’m in that mindset and kind of letting everything kind of take care of itself, I keep myself in a better spot than trying to go out there and do a little too much. That’s my key takeaway from today – felt under control and body felt great."
New York acquired Myers from the Milwaukee Brewers in the same deal that brought over Freddy Peralta and after proving to be a Swiss army knife in two seasons with the Brewers, the Mets are hoping the right-hander can do a little bit of everything for them this season. Saturday's start was another chance at showcasing that.
It also gave Myers and Francisco Alvarez a chance to connect in a game for the first time after Myers threw to prospect Kevin Parada in his spring training debut on Monday. While it was the first time the duo played together in a game, it was not the first time Myers had thrown to Alvarez.
"It was great. I actually got to throw to Francisco two weeks before camp started," Myers said. "He was down in South Florida, I was living down there in the offseason so me him, Freddy, couple [other] guys met up and were able to get some work in before camp started.
"It’s really, really cool – especially this morning – like being able to communicate all morning what we wanna do. Alvy’s full of energy, he’s fun back there. I mean he’s obviously really good at framing pitches because we had like five or six overturned back there, so he’s making them all look like strikes."
While spring training offers the chance for new pitchers and catchers like Myers and Alvarez to familiarize themselves with each other, it's also the time for pitchers to work on new pitches and grips or perfect old ones. It's no different for Myers, who has added a slider to his repertoire this spring to go along with a splitter that he unveiled last season.
"The splitter is fairly new," Myers said. "Last year I started throwing it middle of the season, so trying to fine-tune that pitch and make sure it’s in a good spot when camp breaks. Same pitch, same grip [for my] slider. I’m just spiking it a little bit, so not much different there. We’re just kinda looking for a little bit more depth to get some more swing and miss, so that’s coming along pretty well. It’s been only two weeks throwing it, so it’s been pretty decent."
Whatever role the Mets end up needing out of Myers this season, he'll need his array of pitches to get outs like he did on Saturday. The next step for the 27-year-old, relayed to him by Carlos Mendoza and David Stearns, is to build up his pitch count to 60-65 pitches before re-evaluating the situation.
But no matter how New York uses Myers, he's excited for the opportunity and keeps the same mindset.
"I’m comfortable on the mound, so I feel like if you start a game, if you’re relieving, you’re closing, you still got to get three outs or whatever the case may be so for me I just try to keep that mentality and keep everything simple," he said.
Myers also trusts everybody in charge and knows they have his best interests at heart.
"I like to pride myself on [being] a coachable pitcher, so I like to put my trust in my coaches," he said. "It’s something I did [in Milwaukee] for sure, being a younger guy and kinda getting thrown into like the starting rotation over there.
"Here, very similar. I know everybody here is very, very smart. I know these guys have a great track record and it’s pretty easy to tell when you talk to them and talk to other guys that communicate with those guys, so for me it’s like put my trust in those guys and let them guide me."