So the season didn't get out to a good start for the Mets, at least not in the top of the first inning,

because you had the Brandon Lough two-run homer, and I'm sure there were plenty of Mets fans that hadn't gotten to their seats yet, and it was 2-0-0 Pittsburgh. But in the bottom of the first, if you were in your seats, you got to see a run barrage, if you will, and maybe aided a little bit by some poor play in center field, but details. The infield up for Marcus Semyon in his Mets debut.

First pitch, but details. The infield up for Marcus Semyon in his Mets debut. First pitch. Fastball hit high in the air to center, not too deep. In comes Cruz shading his eyes. He can't come up with it. It falls in front of him or two his left. Coming in to score is Beatty. digging for second is Semi in and he's in with a misplay double and the Mets have a five to two lead. Hi, I'm Howie Rose. Simeon what he did here. He ended up on second. Yeah, he run hard. So as I tell you, he ran right out of the box hard all the way and got to second base. Some guys do, some guys don't, and he is one that does, and it turned out to be good for the Mets. They went 11-7, a five-run first inning, and then even when Pittsburgh was trying to get closer and closer, the Mets then exploded late with a couple of back-to-back home runs from the rookie Carson Benj and Francisco Alvarez, and they win the damn game.

First with Cruz, this was through a translator in the Pirates Clubhouse.

So you also had the Brett Beatty hit where he came in, then had to go back, turns into a big

basis clearing triple through the translator.

What happened out in center field in that first inning?

Just the son was right in front of my face.

We don't want those stops to happen, those things to happen, but it was really uncomfortable today to have the sun right in front of my face. I was finding my best, but it was kind of tough. They were really trying to move the sun behind his face. You know what? He's not wearing glasses, he's got nothing going on. I mean, you know. He worked all off season with, you remember Kevin Kiermeyer? Yeah. It was a great center fielder. For the raise. Right. So he worked with him all season, off season. So like make sure stuff like this doesn't happen. And I don't know. It was a bright day. And I know that outfields sometimes have problems with that, but these are two plays that you got to make. Oh, yeah. It's the major league. The one-off Semyon's bat, honestly, looks like a play you would see on a little league field. Yeah, definitely. That's why I said this is wild. This is going to be known as the O'Neill Cruz game.

And a season opening win. Here was Bo Bichette and his Mets debut. I really liked what the team did offensively. We mentioned Bady and Benj and Alvarez, Luis Robert, a couple of hits, Juan Soto, a couple of hits. Yeah, I mean, it's the first game, but, you know, I think it could give us a glimpse into what we want to be as a team.

You know, getting down early, coming back against, you know, maybe the best in the game.

You know, that's good stuff, so I try to keep it going.

And he's referencing Paul Skeens, who didn't get out of the first inning.

Not all his fault, obviously, as we had the plays by Cruz.

Here was Beatty, great game plan against not only Skeens, but the rest of their staff. I think we battled really, really hard. I remember

Bo getting to so many three-two counts. I know he might have had a couple of strikeouts today or

something, but I mean, he was grinding. The strikeouts that I had to, I was trying to grind,

get the pitch count up, and then all through

the lineup, I feel like we were

super scrappy. Well, they certainly did that. He threw

38 pitches in that first inning before they took him

out. Here was Benj, so we know he homers

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