The Mets (49-46) were defeated by the Washington Nationals (51-42) today by a score of 4-3.
Noah Syndergaard got the start for the Mets in the rubber game this afternoon, and labored through five innings walking a career high five and striking out only four, but was able to limit the damage as he surrendered only one run. However, he is forced to settle with a no decision due to the Nationals late inning heroics, which I will touch upon in a few.
The game was scoreless until the fourth inning, when the Mets were able to break the silence against Jordan Zimmermann.
Ruben Tejada and Daniel Murphy lead off the inning with back-to-back singles, and were both driven in three batters later on a double from Kirk Nieuwenhuis.
The Mets would tack on another run on the next at-bat, as Kevin Plawecki hit a single to bring Nieuwenhuis around from second.
After the Nationals scored a run in the bottom of the fourth, Syndergaard was able to keep the Nationals at bay for the rest of the afternoon before handing the ball over to Hansel Robles in the sixth.
With Robles keeping the Nationals off the board, the Mets were looking to complete the series win over Washington with their new bullpen formation of Jenrry Mejia, Bobby Parnell and Jeurys Familia closing out the game for the 7th, 8th and 9th innings respectively.
However, all did not go as planned, as Parnell imploded in the eighth inning, allowing the Nationals to push across three runs to take the lead and eventually win the ballgame.
It was apparent that Parnell, who has been outstanding so far coming back from Tommy John surgery, just didn’t have it today. He was left in by skipper Terry Collins nonetheless, and the Mets payed the consequences.
Drew Storen closed the door for the Nationals in the ninth inning, and the Mets finish off the road trip going 2-4 and head back home to Flushing to face two of the best pitchers in the game in Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke.
This loss hurts, I’m going to be blunt. After overcoming various hurdles throughout the day, the Mets managed to work out of all of them to keep the lead until the eighth inning.
You can’t fault Terry Collins for bringing Parnell in, but the righty was just not on point today, and should have been removed as soon as the game was tied, and probably even before that.
This was such an important game, and one where you can’t mess around because you must play for the win. Instead of going back to New York one game out of first place, you’re now three games back and are set to face two of the biggest arms in baseball. This game may very well have been a turning point in the season, and not a good one….
On deck:
The Mets start a four game series with the Dodgers tomorrow night at Citi Field with Bartolo Colon (9-8, 4.86 ERA) taking on the aforementioned Clayton Kershaw (7-6, 2.68 ERA). First pitch is at 7:10 pm.
