NEW YORK — As Rick Porcello walked out to the bullpen to warm up, it felt different. There were no fans in the stands, other than the cardboard cutouts behind home plate. Whereas a ballpark can be hectic even before a game starts, Citi Field was dead silent.
But he wore a uniform. He was about to pitch — in an exhibition game, against another team. Because of that, the differences didn’t matter.
Porcello’s outing was more than a tuneup start. It marked the next step — a big one — in baseball’s return.
“It’s really exciting,” Porcello, who grew up in Chester, said on Zoom after his start. “None of us — you guys, us as players, or really I think anybody — knew how it was going to work once we got to camp. Each day that’s gone by, it seems to be rolling smoother and smoother, knock on wood. Now we get to this point where we’re playing against other teams and in a couple of days we’ll get into a regular season.
New York Yankees: Clint Frazier, Michael King headline Bombers exhibition win over the Mets
“It’s exciting just because of the unknowns coming into this season and how everything was going to work. We’re right there. Hopefully we can keep this thing under control and get a good season in. I think the most important thing is being able to bring baseball to our fans and to the country at this time, and we’re knocking on the door of being able to do that. It’s pretty cool.”
Artificial crowd noise. Expanded dugouts. Social distancing in the regular dugouts, and on the field. So many aspects of this season are different, but as fans watched from home, the constants remained.
The Mets were on the home side, the Yankees on the visiting end. Porcello threw the first pitch to Mike Tauchman. Clint Frazier later homered off Porcello. Pete Alonso and J.D. Davis both notched RBI hits. The Yankees defeated the Mets, 9-3.
Baseball may look different this season, but it’s still the same sport. Perhaps that counts for something.
“It was really exciting," Mets manager Luis Rojas said. "I know there’s a lot of energy flying throughout the game. We had a lot of fun."
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Finally, Mets fans were able to watch SNY’s wildly popular broadcast team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling. They were able to listen to Howie Rose and Wayne Randazzo on the radio.
In a far-from-normal 2020, some sort of normalcy returned in Flushing on Saturday night.
Porcello allowed three runs on six hits over five innings. He threw 68 pitches, 39 for strikes. He said he felt good. He isn’t sure whether he will pitch again before the regular season starts, or if his next outing will come when it counts.
But these were not the important details from the night.
Instead, this was about the sport’s return. We have not yet defeated COVID-19, so it’s still a fluid situation. But the fact MLB made it to this point — two teams facing one another on the same field — should be celebrated.
For weeks, players and coaches have seen countless examples of how this season will be different than any other.
On this night, they were perhaps reminded that some things never change.
“Honestly, once I kind of got into my warmup and my routine — went through that whole process that I’ve gone through my entire career — it felt very normal,” Porcello said. “Obviously not having the fans and the atmosphere, we’re missing out on that. It’s an exciting part of the game, it’s exciting to be able to play in front of fans and people that love to watch it. But once I got into my routine and kind of got locked into the game, it felt normal, it felt good.”
Other exhibition notes
- Edwin Diaz, Justin Wilson and Jeurys Familia all pitched in Friday's intrasquad game before pitching again Saturday. It marked the first back to back for them.
- Yankees manager Aaron Boone complimented Luis Rojas' socially distanced mound visits: "I thought Luis Rojas did a great job on the mound visits, because I haven't done that in this world. They were pretty good at going to the edge of the dirt there and being pretty disciplined. I thought they set a nice example.''
- Céspedes will play in the outfield in Sunday's exhibition at Yankee Stadium.
- Betances said he's "100 percent" as opening day approaches.
- Yankees starter Michael King stymied the Mets, allowing only a run on three hits over four innings. Rojas said this about his hitters overall: “I know these guys. They’ve been clicking into their timing, into their rhythm, into making more contact and staying consistent. I thought we took some good swings out there. Definitely a team that can do more than what we did today."
Justin Toscano is the Mets beat writer for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all Mets analysis, news, trades and more, please subscribe today and download our app.
Email: toscanoj@northjersey.com Twitter: @justinctoscano
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