On a day where the field of starting pitchers whittled down to three for the remaining two spots, Alex White was unable to stake a claim to one of them as the New York Mets topped the Astros 7-5 in Kissimmee Wednesday.

White pitched 4 1/3 innings Wednesday, giving up seven hits and three earned runs. His ERA climbed to 6.75 for the spring.

Offensively, the Astros jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings on the strength of a two run homer by Carlos Pena, his fourth of the spring, and a sacrifice fly and a pair of singles by Brett Wallace and Pena.

From that point, the offense went silent and the Mets chipped away. White gave up two runs in the third and another in the fifth before giving way to Wesley Wright and Josh Fields, who held the Mets in check until the seventh inning.

Kevin Chapman came in for the Astros in the top of the seventh and the Mets pounced, scoring four runs off of Chapman before he was pulled with two outs in the inning. Matthew den Decker highlighted the offense for the Mets with a two run triple in the inning.

Wesley Musick and David Martinez closed the door from that point on for the Astros but the damage had been done and the Mets had a 7-5 lead.