Former Met second baseman Daniel Murphy struck again as his solo shot in the tenth inning handed the Mets a 4-3 loss to the Washington Nationals, tonight at Citi Field.
Pitching
Noah Syndergaard returned to the mound for the first time since April 30th. Syndergaard tossed a scoreless inning, and topped out at 99 MPH with his fastball.
For the first time in his career, Matt Harvey came on in relief in the second inning. Harvey’s struggles continued as he allowed three runs on four hits over four innings. After the Mets handed him a 3-0 lead, Harvey allowed a two run homer to Adam Lind and a solo shot to Matt Wieters.
Josh Smoker and Chase Bradford both pitched a scoreless inning in relief of Harvey.
Jerry Blevins got Daniel Murphy to fly out to begin the eighth inning, but was pulled a batter later after walking Anthony Rendon.
Jamie Callahan came on in relief of Blevins, and allowed a single to Howie Kendrick putting runners at the corners. Callahan settled down and struck out Michael Taylor and Andrew Stevenson to get out of the jam. Then Jeurys Familia worked around a two out double to record a scoreless ninth inning.
Jacob Rhame suffered the loss as he allowed a solo home run to Daniel Murphy to lead off the tenth inning. Rhame wasn’t able to make it out of the tenth as he issues a pair of walks.
Kevin McGowan replaced Rhame, and was able to induce a pair of ground outs to get out of the inning with only a one run deficit.
Hitting
The Mets used a third inning rally to score their only three runs.
Nori Aoki led off the third with his second hit of the game, a single to center. Two batters later, Asdrubal Cabrera drew a seven pitch walk to set up runners at first and second.
Brandon Nimmo opened up the scoring as he drove in Aoki with a ground rule double to center.
Kevin Plawecki extended the lead a batter later, as he singled home both Cabrera and Nimmo putting the Mets ahead 3-0.
Up Next
Sunday afternoon will feature a terrific pitching matchup as Jacob deGrom takes the mound against Max Scherzer. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 PM at Citi Field in this rubber game.
