The New York Mets dropped their final spring training night-game to the Nationals, losing 7-3 under the lights in Port St. Lucie. David Peterson had a solid start, but the Mets bullpen struggled and allowed the Nationals to put up five runs in the last two innings of play to give the Nationals the win.

Robert Gsellman (0-1, 5.68 ERA) took the loss for the Mets.

Pitching:

David Peterson made his final start of spring on Friday night, going six innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out two tossing 78 pitches (50 of which were strikes). Peterson started off strong, setting the Nationals down in order in the first.

Peterson had a rocky fourth inning, giving up two RBI singles to Josh Harrison and Hernan Perez that increased his spring ERA to 4.50.

Peterson had a great fifth inning, throwing just six pitches.

Robert Gsellman replaced David Peterson on the mound in the seventh inning. Peterson, through 12 innings pitched during spring training, has a 3.75 ERA.

Gsellman had a rocky two innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits, including a home run to Josh Bell in the eighth that allowed the Nationals to tie the game at three.

Gsellman was replaced in the bottom of the ninth inning by Stephen Tarpley. Gsellman’s final line was 2.0 innings pitched, 4 hits, 2 runs, 2 earned runs, no walks, two strikeouts, one home run. His spring ERA is at 5.63 after his Friday night outing.

Tarpley would last just 0.1 inning, giving up three earned runs on four hits, one walk, one strikeout, and a home run to Luis Garcia.

Tarpley was replaced on the mound by Tylor Megill in the ninth to finish out the game for the Mets. He pitched a scoreless 0.2 innings, giving up just one walk in an impressive inning of work. His ERA is 0.00 this spring.

In all, the Mets pitching staff combined to throw 9.0 innings, giving up 12 hits, seven earned runs, three walks, struck out six, and allowed two home runs.

Offense

The Mets offense was alive Friday night,  however, the run column didn’t show it. The Mets scored just three runs on twelve hits, with most of the line-up collecting at least one hit.

James McCann drove in the Mets first run of the night with a two-out single that scored Jeff McNeil to give the Mets a 1-0 lead in the first.

The Mets offense was quiet until a spark in the sixth inning when they were down by one. It started with a single by Pete Alonso to get the Mets busy. Dominic Smith followed with a triple that scored Pete Alonso to tie the game at two. Smith’s ball went under the glove of Bell at first and proceeded to go to the Nationals’ bullpen. After a Jeff McNeil fly out, J.D. Davis singled on a line drive to right that scored Smith to put the Mets up 3-2.

That would be all the scoring for the Mets on Friday night against the Nationals, however the offense did show strength hitting multiple balls hard, including Francisco Lindor with a 97.5 mph single, Brandon Nimmo with a 95.7 mph infield single, and James McCann with a 106.1 mph single.

On Deck:

Only three spring training games remain before opening day on April 1. The Mets will remain at home at Clover Park on Saturday as they take on the Houston Astros at 1:10 pm EDT. Jacob Barnes (0-1, 5.40 ERA) will get the ball for the Mets against Bryan Abreu (1-0, 3.68 ERA) for the Astros.