The New York Mets (70-66) defeated the Washington Nationals (79-56) by a score of 3-1 tonight at Citi Field. With the win and a St. Louis Cardinals loss, the Mets move within just one game of the second wild card spot.
Pitching:
Robert Gsellman – making only the second start of his young career – pitched very well for the Mets this evening, limiting the Nationals to just one run over the span of seven innings pitched.
Gsellman also registered four punch outs, while walking three and scattering six hits. The young righty also earned his first career win as a starter.
The lone run for the Nats came in the first inning, as Gsellman loaded the bases with only one out. Anthony Rendon hit a sacrifice fly, but Gsellman avoided a potential early beat down, getting Wilson Ramos to pop out to end the frame.
Gsellman got into trouble in the fourth, allowing the first two batters of the inning to reach, but worked up some guile to get out of the inning unscathed.
In the sixth, the aforementioned Anthony Rendon clubbed a double down the left field line to put an immediate threat on the base paths. Wilson Ramos then walked, but Gsellman retired the next three batters in a row to end his night on a positive note.
Jim Henderson relieved Gsellman to start the seventh and retired one batter before being removed in favor of Josh Smoker, who was facing the team that drafted him for the first time.
Smoker got Daniel Murphy to fly out to center do in part to a fantastic diving catch from Michael Conforto, and then struck out Bryce Harper as Smoker leapt off the mound with the ferocity of a lion and fist pumped his way into the dugout.
Addison Reed pitched a clean eighth, and Jeurys Familia locked the doors shut with his 45th save of the campaign.
Offense:
The offense tonight came on the strength of hits from two unlikely heroes: Curtis Granderson and James Loney.
Down 1-0 in the third, Curtis Granderson stepped to the plate with the bases juiced after Yoenis Cespedes was intentionally walked and promptly drilled a liner to right field to score a pair.
Then in the sixth, James Loney gave the Mets a little breathing room, knocking in an insurance run with a double down the right field line to score a hustling Travis d’Arnaud all the way from first.
Mets/Nationals games are always closely contested ball games, and it was nice to see two guys who have struggled so mightily step up and give the Mets a much needed victory to tie the series.
On deck:
Seth Lugo (2-2, 2.60 ERA) will take on Reynaldo Lopez (2-2, 5.33 ERA) tomorrow night for Sunday Night Baseball, with the first pitch scheduled for 8:08 PM.
