After a grueling eleven game road trip, the Mets found comfort back in Queens by shutting out the Nats 2-0, in a duel between two formidable right-handers that lived up to the hype.
This time around, Noah Syndergaard left the run scoring to his fellow teammates, who wasted no time putting the Mets on the board.
Curtis Granderson smacked Max Scherzer’s first pitch 359 ft, then in the 3rd inning, Michael Conforto, on a 2-2 count, went yard for a solo shot of his own.
Syndergaard, armed with 100 mph heat, struck out 10, walked none, and more than held his own against the former Cy Young Award winning Scherzer, whose last outing yielded 20 k’s.
Thank god the Mets only needed one of their two runs because Scherzer was mighty stingy, matching Syndergaard in strikeouts – the difference being two of the three hits he surrendered left the ballpark.
It was bittersweet seeing Daniel Murphy at Citi Field in a different uniform and dugout, and the NY fans showered him with a flurry of mixed emotions.
“It was really nice,” Murphy said of the fans. “The ovation from the crowd left me humbled to say the least.”
They gave him a standing ovation when the Mets, in a classy move, played a one-minute video montage highlighting his monumental record six straight postseason homerun games.
“It was very nice of the organization to play that video montage before the game,” Murphy added. “They didn’t have to do that.”
Murphy was greeted with another ovation his first at bat, then booed his next time up.
If Harper got on base in the top of the 9th, Murphy could have given the crowd more drama than they desired by tying the game with one crack of the bat, but Familia was on fire, dousing any heroics from his former friend now foe.
Familia converted on his 13th save of the season with a perfect ninth inning and is 13-for-13 in save opportunities this year. Dating back to August 1, 2015, Familia has converted on 29 consecutive saves, the second-longest active streak in the major leagues behind Arizona’s Brad Ziegler.
Matt Reynolds, called up from Triple A, filling in for the day-to-day David Wright, had the dubious honor of making his MLB debut against Scherzer. He went 0-3 with a strikeout, not much of a departure from the veteran he replaced.
Syndergaard and Co. went right after Bryce Harper, who went 0-4 with two strikeouts and had his career-best 10 game streak with a walk come to a close. The streak was the second longest in the majors this season behind David Wright’s 11-game streak from April 27-May 12.
The Mets are now 6-0 after an off day this year and have scored an average of 6.0 runs in those six wins.
Up next, Bartolo Colon will try to free himself of the five earned run demons he last deposited at Dodger Stadium as he faces the Nationals Gio Gonzalez‘ 2-1, 1.93 ERA.
Photo: USA Today Sports, Adam Hunger
