The Mets got all of one hit in their Opening Day loss to the Brewers on Friday at Citi Field, but the one hit opened some eyes in Queens.
That’s because it was a 109.2 mph laser from Starling Marte that just cleared the wall in left field.
It was the hardest ball hit all day by a Met, with Marte adding a fly out to deep right that was caught acrobatically by Jackson Chourio, as well as a 107 mph groundout in the fifth.
They were all promising signs for the 35-year-old outfielder on an otherwise lackluster day.
Marte’s tenure with the Mets so far has been wildly disappointing, impacted by injuries and poor play.
He was limited to just 86 games a year ago because of groin and core muscle issues, as well as migraines.
The late signing of J.D. Martinez was seen as a move made in part because of the team’s concern about Marte’s production in 2024, but Marte may have allayed some of those fears on Friday in a 3-1 loss.
“It feels good to be healthy after all the injuries and all the problems I had,’’ Marte said through an interpreter. “I felt good with all the hard work I put in during the offseason.”
Marte also played in the Dominican Winter League, but the results did not show during a rough spring training for the outfielder in the third season of a four-year, $78 million contract.
“It was good to be able to play and have results on the field,’’ Marte said.
The home run was the only hit the Mets mustered against Milwaukee right-hander Freddy Peralta over his six innings of work — and it didn’t come in traditional fashion.
Since it bounced off a guardrail just above the fence, the ball ricocheted back onto the field, leaving Marte unsure of whether it was a homer.
“I hit it and ran out of the box really hard,” Marte said. “I saw [left fielder Christian] Yelich, the way he threw the ball [on a lob to second base] and saw the umpire and knew it was a home run.”
He hit just five of them last season, in a year that was interrupted often by injuries and headaches in what was a miserable 2023 for just about everyone involved in Queens.
There’s a long way to go before Marte can prove that’s in the past, but at least he can say he got off to a good start.
