NEW YORK -- Despite the names on the backs of their jerseys and the numbers on the backs of their baseball cards, the 2025 Mets were not an elite offense. They finished ninth in the Majors in runs per game, eighth in slugging and ninth in total bases. After the season, team leaders opted not to retain either of their primary hitting coaches.
They spent the rest of the winter transforming their offense behind new players, new coaches and a new outlook. Then they set about trying to prove that things might be different.
Throughout an 11-7 win on Opening Day on Thursday, Mets hitters began to do exactly that, grinding out at-bats and taking advantage of multiple Pirates mistakes to knock reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes out of the game in the first inning. From there, they maintained relentless pressure at Citi Field, drawing nine walks and forcing the Pirates to throw 151 pitches over the first five innings alone.
Along the way, Carson Benge homered for his first career hit, Francisco Alvarez also went deep and reached base safely three times, Francisco Lindor scored three runs, Luis Robert Jr. drove home two, and so on and so forth, on and on and on. This was not a victory so much as a clinic. The Mets simply leaned on the Pirates until they broke.
It was the first evidence that these Mets can be a championship-caliber team even if their pitching needs some time to catch up. Starter Freddy Peralta, one of eight players making his Mets debut, was good but not great over five innings. It didn’t come close to mattering.
The Mets knocked Skenes out in the first inning in part because of their pressurized offense, and in part because of multiple mistakes from converted Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz, who most notably broke inward on a Brett Baty sharp line drive that landed over his head for a bases-clearing triple. Marcus Semien followed with the first of his two hits, and the Mets were off to the races.