Tuesday night’s 2-1 loss against the Nationals was a complete one-eighty compared to the night before. Rick Porcello took the mound with improved composure and ability to locate his pitches allowing two runs and no walks over six innings pitched. 

Despite the Mets’ bullpen keeping the score stable throughout the game, the offense was unable to even out the score with only a single run on the Mets scoreboard coming from a sacrifice fly from Luis Guillorme. 

The main positive note from tonight’s game came from Andres Gimenez and Guillorme turning two double plays against Trea Turner as well as a solid defense overall minimizing the damage.

Pitching 

Porcello went into the first inning allowing a one strike solo home run to Trea Turner bringing the score to 1-0 Nationals but managed to make it through the rest of the inning without any other issues. 

Going into the second, Porcello allowed singles to Howie Kendrick and Kurt Suzuki. Kendrick was then brought home on a single from Victor Robles who was then tagged out on a great play from Dom Smith to end the threat. 

After making it through four solid scoreless innings, Porcello was relieved by Jared Hughes going into the seventh. Porcello’s final line included two runs on eight hits and five strikeouts. Porcello’s outing portrayed a much better pitcher as his control was improved not walking any batters. 

Hughes had a solid outing striking out Asdrubal Cabrera and retiring Eric Thames and Suzuki on flyouts in the seventh making it through the eighth without a run as well. 

Edwin Diaz entered in the ninth and allowed a single to Kendrick but had a good outing striking out the rest of the side bringing his ERA for the season to 2.84. 

 

Offense 

The Mets started off the bottom of the first with a pair of singles from Jeff McNeil and Michael Conforto and a walk to Dom Smith. 

Despite having the league’s second-best on-base percentage, the Mets offense has had a great amount of trouble translating those to runs as the inning ended with the base runners stranded.  

After three scoreless innings, Gimenez tripled on a line drive in the fourth, eventually being brought home on a sac fly from Guillorme bringing the score 2-1 Nationals.

The Mets bats were pretty silent for the rest of the game. Even when batters were able to get on base, they were unable to get home, eventually ending the game on a strikeout from Guillorme. 

On Deck

The Mets will face righty Anibal Sanchez (0-2, 7.84 ERA) for game three in the Washington Nationals series at 7:10 PM EST on Wednesday. As of now, it is unknown who the Mets will start in Wednesday’s game.

The game will be televised on SNY and broadcast on WCBS 880 AM.