Long Ball Dooms Megill As Mets Drop Nightcap 4-3 to Nationals

After a memorable beginning to the day-night doubleheader, the New York Mets likely preferred a much less taxing game to occur in the night cap. With Tylor Megill on the mound for New York, and a pitcher in Josh Rogers appearing in his first MLB game since 2018 for the Washington Nationals, the Mets surely wished for a much simpler game. Well, the absences of Francisco Lindor and Javier Baez (rest), as well as Brandon Nimmo (injury), loomed large as the Mets only tallied four hits and dropped the nightcap 4-3.

The Mets got the scoring going once again in the first inning. Much like in the first game, New York led off with three consecutive hits, the last of which saw Michael Conforto bring home Jonathan Villar courtesy of a RBI single. Unfortunately, the Mets were unable to bring the men that were on first and third, with no outs, home. This proved to be costly in the bottom half of the inning.

Megill’s home run ball struggles continued as Lane Thomas took him deep just a couple of pitches into the bottom part of the inning. It was the 13th home run Megill has allowed this season. Many of which have come in the past month or so.

The damage was not done yet in the inning, as the Nationals tacked on another run thanks to a one-out, “0-2” ground ball through the right side of the infield. Fortunately, Megill was able to strand two men on, courtesy of a beautiful play by Luis Guillorme that saved a run with one out. The Mets trailed 2-1 after one inning and Megill had to throw 25 pitches in the process.

The Mets would threaten in the top of the third after two walks. However, Kevin Pillar‘s hard ground ball with an xBA of .390 was corralled by Josh Bell for the final out. Megill responded with his second consecutive “1-2-3” inning as he retired eight in a row by the third inning’s end.

The Nationals’ starter, who has given up more hits than innings pitched in Triple-A this year, also settled in. Rogers retired seven in a row before chipping in offensively during the fifth inning. He laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to move Luis Garcia to third base with one out. Alcides Escobar then hit the 14th home run off Megill this season with two outs, putting the lowly Nationals up 4-1 in the fifth inning of a seven-inning game.

Pillar – whose batting .457 over his last five games – got the Mets right back into the ball game in the bottom half of the inning. He rocketed a 106.2 MPH two-run home run over the left-field fence, his 13th of the season. It closed the deficit back to one run with the Mets down to five outs.

Megill would pitch the sixth as well, which was important given New York only had one fresh arm in the bullpen. His night as a whole was so-so, as he pitched six innings and gave up four runs on seven hits while striking out eight. He threw 96 pitches.

In the top of the seventh, the Mets had Lindor (pinch hit for Guillorme), the pitcher’s spot, and Villar set to come to the plate. The Nationals opted to go with Kyle Finnegan, who was charged with the loss in game one while throwing 25 pitches, to close the door. Lindor grounded out, Baez struck out, and Villar walked. This brought Pete Alonso up to the plate, and with Villar stealing second, with a runner in scoring position. However, Alonso took strike three right down the middle at the knees to end the game.

This loss ended the Mets, “six-plus one,” game win streak. It also hindered them from gaining another game on the two teams that are ahead of them in the division. As it stands, New York will either be 3.5 or 4.0 games back of Atlanta by night’s end. If New York won, they could have crept to only 2.5 games back of Atlanta. It was certainly a large opportunity missed.

The Mets and Nationals series will continue tomorrow at 1:05 PM ET. This will be the second to last time the Mets play the lowly Nationals. The game will be on Labor Day, this Monday. The expected pitching matchup for tomorrow’s matchup: Taijuan Walker (3.89 ERA) versus Josiah Gray (4.22 ERA).