The New York Mets (77-69) lost to the Washington Nationals (87-57) by a score of 1-0 Wednesday in Washington. The Giants and Cardinals both lost today, so the Mets remain a half game behind the Giants for the first Wild Card spot, and a half game ahead of the Cardinals for the second.
Offense:
Reyes started the game off by lining Tanner Roark‘s third pitch down the right field line for a base hit. Asdrubal Cabrera then continued his hot hitting with a hot shot up the middle to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Yoenis Cespedes got jammed and popped out to the first baseman before some sort of cross-up between Roark and the catcher Wilson Ramos led to a passed ball, moving the runners to second and third with one out and Curtis Granderson at the dish.
With Reyes getting a comically large lead from third with the infield shifted to the right, Curtis Granderson walked to load the bases. Jay Bruce then struck out on three pitches for the second out of the inning, bringing last night’s hero T.J. Rivera to the box. He hit one in the air down the right field line, on which Bryce Harper made a nice sliding grab on the line to end the inning.
The Mets were kept quiet all day. With the exception of some walks here and there, the only other hit before the 9th inning was a Jay Bruce single.
Mark Melancon came in for the save, his 5th time pitching in the last 6 days. Curtis Granderson greeted him and lined one down the first base line. It would have been an easy double, but Ryan Zimmerman was quite literally playing right on the line and picked it out of the air for the first out. Up came Jay Bruce who coming into today was 6-11 (.545) career against Melancon. He hit one just short of the warning track in center which was run down for the second out of the inning.
Up came T.J. Rivera, a rematch from last night. Melancon got ahead of him 0-2, just as he did last night, however this time he got Rivera to ground out to shortstop to end the game.
Pitching:
Robert Gsellman was phenomenal today, pitching 5.2 scoreless innings allowing only 5 hits and one walk while striking out 4. He was removed from the game in the 6th inning after throwing 77 pitches.
Josh Smoker came in with a runner on second base to face Daniel Murphy, who he walked intentionally. Bryce Harper then came up with runners on first and second with two outs, and Smoker struck him out looking at a 96 mph fastball on the outside corner to end the inning.
Fernando Salas was tasked with the 7th inning and allowed only one hit. Unfortunately, that one hit was a solo home run off the bat of notorious Met-killer Wilson Ramos who gave the Nationals a late 1-0 lead. He stayed in and pitched a perfect 8th inning.
Notes:
Verizon Trivia Question: Who had the game-winning hit in Game 7 of the 1924 World Series for the Washington Senators?
Daniel Murphy had at least one hit in every single game against the Mets this season.
Verizon Trivia Answer: Earl McNeely (12th inning)
On Deck:
The Mets head home, sending Bartolo Colon (13-7, 3.27 ERA) to the Citi Field mound to face off against Jose Berrios (2-6, 9.27 ERA) and the Twins at 7:10 PM.
