Tie game in the bottom of the ninth. It was every young ballplayer’s dream. Tim Tebow was leading off for the Syracuse Mets. He’d homered on his last two opening days. Why not this one, too?

But a lefty-lefty matchup led to a 94 mile per hour fastball in on the hands. Tebow’s two-strike swing was just a bit too long.

“They match up with him, lefties gave him a tough time,” Syracuse manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “… Overall I think they’re gonna try to pound him in, and he’s gotta make adjustments and stay short through the ball.”

Tebow finished his Triple-A debut 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and two groundouts as the Mets (0-1) lost, 6-3, in extra innings to the Pawtucket Red Sox (1-0). He caught two routine fly balls in left field as well. A step-up in level meant a step-up in the opposing pitchers, and after one Thursday afternoon at NBT Bank Stadium, it was a step Tebow didn’t look ready to take.

Tebow wasn’t made available for comment postgame.

“It’s also great competition,” Tebow said Tuesday of Triple-A. “So it’s continuing to learn and adjust and adapt to really good players… guys that are good enough to be doing it in the big leagues.”

DeFrancesco warned at Mets’ media day on Tuesday that Tebow would have improve at taking pitches out of the zone. In his first at bat of the season, he squandered a 3-0 count. He took each ball and stared at a fastball. Then, Pawtucket starter Mike Shawaryn broke off two-straight sliders. The first, Tebow leaned onto his front leg and flailed at. He tipped the second, but it ended up in the catcher’s glove, too.

Shawaryn attacked Tebow the same way the second time: A first-pitch slider taken for a strike, then another slider that Tebow rolled over to the first baseman for a groundout. 

“He hasn’t seen a lot of Triple-A movement,” DeFrancesco said Tuesday. “That’s what they’re gonna try to get him out with.”

Shawaryn goes right back to the slider well twice, called strike and 3-unassisted for Tim Tebow. Through four scoreless. #Syracuse #Mets #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/FSI7LkF2By

— Billy Heyen (@Wheyen3) April 4, 2019

Another pitch down in the zone in the sixth led to another Tebow groundout. Pawtucket shifted him, three fielders on the right side, and Tebow rolled right into it, with the shortstop fielding it about where the second baseman normally stood.

It looked like Tebow’s shot to salvage his day would come in the bottom of the eighth with two runners on. But as Tebow took a pitch, Rajai Davis was caught stealing third, sending the tie game to the ninth. A half-inning of anticipation followed, fans stuck to their seats waiting to see if Tebow could really do it.

Tebow’s shown a knack in his career for turning fantasy into reality: The opening day homers the last two years, a walk-off touchdown pass in his first NFL playoff game, two national titles and a Heisman in three years as Florida’s quarterback.

It wasn’t to be Thursday. The reality showed that Tebow wasn’t equipped to face a same-sided pitcher throwing inside heat in the mid-90s. His earlier at bats had shown that quality breaking pitches might be an issue, too.

“Not everybody gets to hit the first game, there’s a lot of games, baseball is how you handle failure,” DeFrancesco said. “These guys are gonna come back tomorrow and a guy that went 0-for-4 today, tomorrow might get three hits.”

Positioned in front of the media and season-ticket holders as the only Syracuse Mets player to get his own press conference, Tebow knew Tuesday he had a long way to go. He thought back to a series in Single-A at Lexington when he went 0-for-9 and the scoreboard showed his career interceptions and fumbles. 

“That’s where having mental toughness and being able to stop that thought right at its tracks is important,” Tebow said Tuesday. “If not, this game’s too hard. You get out a lot in it… You’re gonna have highs and lows but you gotta be able to stay on the course and when you need to, speak life into whatever you’re doing.”

Published on April 4, 2019 at 7:53 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3