49.9% Full

The Mets played to five ties in Spring Training. You can’t do that in the regular season, eight long-ago curfew/rain-related exceptions to the rule notwithstanding,. Therefore, Opening Day 2025 was going to be either a win or a loss, meaning we were bound to process it, in very basic terms, as good or bad.

Loss equals bad, so there ya go. But if you like nuance, it wasn’t that bad. True, a 3-1 loss in the Mets’ first road Opener in an American League park since 2016 — Kansas City, also a loss — isn’t good. Oh-and-one as a record isn’t good. Anticipation resulting in regret isn’t good. Hard to fill the glass to half-full when you’re pouring all factors considered.

But we almost won. That sounds like something you say on behalf of a team that didn’t sign Juan Soto to a record-breaking contract, but the top of the ninth, when one more wave of anticipation built, veered toward pretty good for March 27. The Mets’ offense taking on Framber Valdez was mostly dead all day, if not as dead as on Opening Day from a year earlier (we were one-hit at home). We loaded the bases in the eighth and scored nothing, and that was pretty much our biggest threat to that point.

The ninth, though, felt like the Mets team we loved last September and October, the one we looked forward to through Spring. Versus the accomplished Josh Hader, Starling Marte leads off with a single and Tyrone Taylor follows with the same. Second baseman Luisangel Acuña is up. Acuña as the Opening Day second baseman was a bit of a surprise, as 24 hours earlier it wasn’t clear he’d make the roster. Then again, the alternative, Brett Baty, wasn’t a second baseman a year ago, so either way, it’s not quite how things were being drawn up in Metsopotamian heads. Also, Acuña stood out in the course of the game as the fielder who threw a double play ball past the reach of Pete Alonso for one of the Astros’ three runs. It wasn’t exactly the differencemaker — the Mets had scored none — but it wasn’t inspiring.

What was inspiring was the plate appearance Luisangel proceeded to have against Hader: a dozen pitches, six foul-offs, and, ultimately, four balls. The kid looked like he did when he was brought up to fill in down the stretch last year. He looked like he belonged.

This is where the glass began to approach the half-full mark in earnest. Clay Holmes did not constitute a great advertisement for reliever conversion (he lasted four-and-two-thirds), and there had been a certain crispness lacking all day, but here we were. Bases loaded, nobody out, and any of the next three batters could write a storybook next sentence.

The first didn’t seem likely, but did it seem likely that Hayden Senger would be playing on Opening Day in the major leagues? This is the guy who’s been in the Met system since 2018 and has never exactly hit for much. He was in because Carlos Mendoza opted to shoot his shot pinch-hitting for Luis Torrens with Jesse Winker to lead off the eighth (which didn’t work). All the bench had left was Baty and Jose Siri, neither of them a catcher and, to be fair, neither of them Rusty Staub. Senger versus Hader? As long as he doesn’t hit into a double play, you’ll take your chances.

Senger struck out. Not totally unexpected, and not the worst outcome, because the lineup turns over, and it’s the non-Ohtani MVP of the National League up, Francisco Lindor. Hand Francisco the pen. Any next sentence that includes Lindor is promising.

Sure enough, Francisco drives one to center. Francisco driving one to center has meant some marvelous turns of events in recent memory. A drive to center effectively clinched a playoff berth in Atlanta. Another, a little to right-center, more or less won a playoff series at Citi Field. This drive to center was a flyout, good enough only to push Marte home and Taylor to third. That meant one run, but two outs.

That also meant Juan Soto was coming up with two men on. Soto’s Met debut thus far had been fruitful if not impactful. One single. Two walks. No runs facilitated, but you could say that about every Met batter prior to the ninth. This was a pivot point, however. Not for fifteen years. Just for Opening Day.

Hader had been on the ropes through five batters and twenty-nine pitches. Even Senger didn’t make it very easy on the Astro closer. He seemed gettable, and who better to do the getting than Soto? Sure enough, Juan worked a two-and-oh count, which ascended to three-and-two. What were the odds Hader could sneak something past Soto and end the game?

I imagine one of those gambling apps would have told me in advance. I wouldn’t have bet against Juan, though if I had, I would have collected. Hader threw a slider that tailed away from the plate. Juan guessed wrong on it and swung in desperation. No go. Strike three. Ballgame. Ouch.

Only so much ouch. It was just one game. True, it was the only game we’ve had all year, so the 0-1 record didn’t sit well as I attempted to digest it and dinner. But Juan will get more cracks and probably prevail plenty in comparably deep at-bats. And Holmes wasn’t so out of his element that I don’t believe he’s miscast as a starting pitcher. And hey, how about Huascar Brazoban coming in and shutting down the Astros for two-and-a-third? He wasn’t guaranteed a spot in the bullpen, yet he, along with Danny Young, kept the game viable post-Holmes. And that Acuña time up really was a sight to behold.

Mix in the reasonable conclusion that the Mets won’t post an ohfer with runners in scoring position into perpetuity nor leave ten runners on base for every one they score, and you have to be almost satisfied that the Mets almost came back. And did we mention it’s baseball season again? And that the new road togs looked sharp? It is and they did.

The glass came ever so close to topping the half-full line. Another chance awaits to fill it to brimming.