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The Houston Astros and New York Mets had an Opening Day-caliber pitching matchup in Port St. Lucie at Tradition Field on Thursday. The Astros' Dallas Keuchel faced the Mets' Matt Harvey with Keuchel getting the better of the two in a 8-6 win.
Keuchel continued his campaign for the key to New York, having dominated the New York Yankees in the playoffs and now the Mets with five scoreless innings. He allowed three hits, walked one and struck out five.
On the other side the Astros roughed up Harvey, who gave up six runs over three innings -- including throwing 40 pitches in one inning.
The scoring the Astros started with A.J. Reed hits double over Mets centerfielder Yoenis Cespedes. The ball bounced under the outfield pad, Cespedes called for a dead ball and a ground-rule double. The request was not granted and Reed kept running.
Reed was rewarded with an inside-the-park home run. The runs contiued with a bases-loaded walk to George Springer and sacrifice fly from Marwin Gonzalez. Houston led 3-0 after one inning.
The Astros top first-baseman prospect, Reed, contiued to mash in the third. Reed and Tyler hit back-to-back doubles to score a run. Derek Fisher tripled home Reed to add a second run in the inning.
Harvey walked Carlos Correa, Preston Tucker and Reed to load the bases in the fourth. Correa scored on a wild pitch.
Reed again sparked the offense with a double in the seventh -- he moved to third on a fly ball from Colin Moran and scored on a Roberto Pena sacrifice fly.
The Mets five runs came in the eighth inning off Jandel Gustave. Five batters reached and three runs scored before Gustave was pulled. Edwar Cabrera replaced Gustave and proceeded to give up a double to Phillip Evans -- scoring John MOra and Dominic Smith. Cabrera retired the next three batters he faced.
Cesar Valdez finished off the ninth for the Astros for the save, after allowing a hit and walk in the inning.
Reed was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and two RBIs. Fisher was 2-for-2 with two RBIs.