Steven Matz thinks he has fixed his first-inning problems

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Hurt last season by pitching poorly in the first inning, Steven Matz believes he has solved that problem.

“It’s more of a mentality thing than anything,” said Matz, who had a 6.21 ERA in the opening frame and a 3.77 ERA in the rest of the game last year. “Sometimes you gotta just trust what you have, all the work you put in, all the preparation that you put in that it’s going to be there — instead of, ‘Oh, I don’t feel like I have a good curveball today,’ so you shy away from it or whatever. You put in all these hours of work. Just trust it. Go out and execute it.”

Matz said the successful adoption of that mindset might have stemmed from his brief bullpen stint last July. Instead of dancing around hitters in his first inning, he learned to be more aggressive. It paid off, too, in the form of a 3.52 ERA in the second half.

“Coming into here, I’m trying to build off of that,” Matz said.

It is not clear in what role he will get a chance to build off of that. He is competing for a rotation spot — the Mets have six starters for five spots — and said Mets decision-makers haven’t offered guidance other than to say he is stretching out as a starting pitcher during camp.

“I recognize logistically what we have before us, which ultimately is a good problem to have,” Matz said. “For me personally, I’m just going to try to maximize my stuff as best I can, utilizing [pitching coach] Jeremy Hefner and some of the things he’s taught me.”

In his spring training debut, Matz allowed one run in one inning Sunday in a 3-3 tie with the Cardinals. Harrison Bader, the first batter of the game, homered, but Matz settled in to retire the next three batters.

Missing persons

Two days and three games into the exhibition schedule, several key Mets haven’t appeared in games yet. Among them:

• Noah Syndergaard will start Wednesday against the Astros.
• Jacob deGrom is being eased in, sticking to throwing live batting practice for now. He is “going to see a lot of action this season, and we have a plan set where he will start joining into games as we move forward,” manager Luis Rojas said.
• Robinson Cano is still strengthening his lower half, which he said was his offseason focus. Rojas called 2019 “a learning experience” for Cano, who went on the injured list with leg problems three times.
• Edwin Diaz threw live BP Sunday, but Rojas did not say when he will pitch in a game.
• Jed Lowrie (unspecified right knee injury) is “doing everything but games,” Rojas said. No word on when he will play, either.   

Extra bases

The first Mets homer of Grapefruit League play belonged to Jake Marisnick, who mashed a pitch from Adam Wainwright over the left-centerfield wall in the second inning.

“It feels good. Always feels good,” said Marisnick, a defense-first backup outfielder. “That’s the goal: If you get a good pitch, put a good swing on it. The sooner you can do that and the more consistently you can do that, the better. So it was good to get that first one out of the way.”

Righthander Franklyn Kilome allowed two runs in one inning in his first game — exhibition or otherwise — since undergoing Tommy John surgery in October 2018.

Upcoming Mets starters this week: David Peterson at Nationals on Monday, Michael Wacha at Tigers on Tuesday.