Lyles pleads unlucky 5th

In Port St. Lucie, Fla., top pitching prospect Jordan Lyles hit some speed bumps during his three-inning outing in a 7-2 defeat against the New York Mets on Wednesday.

Lyles, a 20-year-old righthander, got touched up for two runs on five hits, raising his spring ERA from 0.00 to 2.25. He didn't walk a batter and struck out two (Jason Bay, Lucas Duda), while two of the hits surrendered were on line drives just over the head of second baseman Anderson Hernandez. A bloop here, a bleeder there, and the Mets had a two-run rally in the fifth inning.

"I felt like I had some good pitches in there and some bad pitches," Lyles said. "For the most part, when I wanted to get the ball down, I did a pretty good job of that. I got guys to hit off the end of the bat, which is pretty good, but they fell in. You can't do too much about it."