New York Mets: Best Performances from the 1-0 Opening Day Win

The 2012 season has started off great for the New York Mets, with a 1-0 win over the division rival Atlanta Braves.

Although the lineup obviously wasn't able to produce many runs, that tends to be the case on opening day because all of the aces are ready to go; the pitching was phenomenal and each new member of the bullpen played a huge role.

This article is simply going to be the best three performances from today, ranked in order from one to three stars.

For any hockey fans, it's the same thing they do for each hockey game, with three stars being the best performance.

There were definitely more than three Mets who performed well today, so it was hard to chose just three, so I will have a couple honorable mentions. Let's take a look at the list.

Honorable Mention: Frank Francisco

It was hard to not include Frank Francisco, because after the bullpen was such a problem last year, Francisco looked terrific on opening day, shutting the Braves down 1-2-3 and not even giving them any hope.

Francisco finished off a great day for the Mets by striking out Jason Heyward on a terrific high heater. Hopefully Francisco's day was a sign of things to come this year for the Mets.

Honorable Mention: Daniel Murphy

Murphy had a nice day at the plate, going 2-4 with a double. He had the single in the sixth inning that sent Torres to 3rd and set the table for Wright's RBI single that eventually won the game.

However, there were no doubts about Murphy's bat. If you find a way to put him in the lineup, he's going to produce for you. The Mets are going to need Murphy to be able to play second base this year in order to keep him in the lineup, and in the few chances he got today, he looked solid. He fielded a couple sharply hit ground balls like he'd been playing second base his whole life, and that's great to see.

1 Star: Johan Santana

I know some people might disagree with this, because all things considered, Johan Santana was phenomenal today, in his first regular season game pitched in 19 months. At one point, he retired 12 consecutive batters. He ran into a little bit of trouble in the 5th inning when his control started to get away from him a bit, but he managed to find his way out of it.

If Santana was able to stay in the game a little longer, he probably would've gotten at least two stars on this list, but I expect plenty of that from him in the future. One thing is for sure though, Mets fans are very encouraged by what Santana did today.

2 Stars: David Wright

David Wright had a great day at the plate today, going 2-3 with a walk and the lone RBI of the day. Wright's single in the bottom of the 6th inning plated Andres Torres and put the Mets ahead for good.

If the Mets were going to win an opening day game 1-0, who else other than Wright would you want to get that lone RBI? After an injury-plagued and disappointing year last season, Wright definitely got off on the right track this year.

One thing I noticed in his swing is that he looks as though he's back to his old ways trying to drive the ball to the right side, instead of trying to pull everything. His weight was back and he drove his hands through the zone with great force. Maybe the pulled-in fences in Citi Field will affect Wright's numbers more quickly than we thought.

3 Stars: Tim Byrdak

The man has only been back from arthroscopic surgery for a few days, and on opening day, he gets called in for the biggest situation of the game. What does he do? He gets two straight strikeouts and makes both hitters look downright silly.

Byrdak entered the game with Taylor Pastornicky on third base and just one out. He proceeded to strike Jose Constanza out on a pitch that Constanza literally threw the bat at, just to try to make contact and stay alive.

He followed that by striking out Michael Bourne on a filthy slider that Bourne got nowhere near. That was the end of the last threat the Braves would make all day.

The Mets entered the season with only one left-hander in the bullpen, but if Byrdak keeps throwing like that, there won't be any need for another.