The New York Mets (22-18) were defeated by the Washington Nationals (24-16) by a score of 9-1 at Citi Field Thursday night. The Nationals took the rubber game of the three game set and now have a 2.5 game lead in the division.
Pitching:
Matt Harvey just didn’t have it tonight in what was billed as maybe the biggest game of the season so far. Harvey gave up nine runs (six earned), walked two, and struck out two in 2.2 innings of work. It was ugly.
Harvey came out in the first inning topping out at 96 mph but walked Jayson Werth. With one on and two out, Daniel Murphy made him pay by launching a two run homerun to give the Nats the early lead.
After a good second inning, it all came undone for Harvey in the third. Ben Revere started things off with a single. After retiring Werth, Bryce Harper followed with a single of his own that would put runners on first and third. Harper then stole second base, foolishly taking the bat out of Murphy’s hands by allowing the Mets to intentionally walk him. Harvey then coaxed a tailor made double play to get out of the inning with the bases loaded but Asdrubal Cabrera booted the ball allowing a run to score.
Next up, Anthony Rendon hit a line drive to Michael Conforto that he took a bad route on and the ball dropped right off his glove giving the Nats the 5-1 lead. From there, Harvey just put up batting practice allowing Wilson Ramos to single in two more runs, Danny Espinosa to single, and finally the dagger, a Ben Revere triple to give the Nats a 9-1 lead.
Logan Verrett would come in to mercilessly put out the fire for the final out in the third inning.
The bullpen really did a fine job tonight mopping up an incredible mess. Verrett pitched 2.1 scoreless innings. Antonio Bastardo pitched 2 scoreless and Jerry Blevins and Addison Reed each pitched a scoreless inning as well.
Offense:
The Mets offense has been non-existent for most of the month as almost the entire lineup has been cold outside of Yoenis Cespedes. The Mets briefly made things interesting in the top of the second when Yoenis singled to lead off the inning. After a Lucas Duda strikeout, Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera followed with singles to score the Mets only run of the night as Stephen Strasburg completely overpowered the team.
All in all, the Mets could only muster six hits.
Notes:
Lucas Duda returned to the lineup after having a back issue the last few days.
The Mets have now lost six of their last seven games.
On Deck:
The Mets will open up their first game of a three game series with the Milwaukee Brewers tomorrow night at Citi Field. The game has a start time of 7:10 PM. Steven Matz (5-1, 2.86 ERA) will look to continue his early season success against Wily Peralta (2-4 7.30 ERA).
