The New York Mets couldn't hit enough to overcome the Washington Nationals offense.
The New York Mets are trying to finish out an ugly season on a positive note with their third straight series win, but it didn’t go well in the first game as the Washington Nationals pounded the Mets to get a 7-6 win.
It was Bad Relievers Night for New York in the nation’s capital as they opened with Jefrey Yan, who got hit hard, and Jonathan Pintaro followed Yan to the mound and got hit harder.
The Mets did manage to score first on an RBI double in the first to give New York a brief 1-0 lead, but CJ Abrams brought home two with an RBI single to put the Nats ahead 2-1 after one.
New York did fight back to take a 3-2 lead on an RBI double from Bo Bichette and a run-scoring sacrifice fly from Vientos, but Washington came back with four runs in the third to make it 6-3 as Pintaro and Cionel Perez continued the pitching implosion.
That made it 6-3, but the Mets managed to fight back yet again on a pair of homers, one from Bichette and a second from Carson Benge. Benge’s was his 20th of the season, and he became the first 20-20 rookie in franchise history as he’s also stolen 20 bases.
The homer barrage tightened things up to 6-5, but a solo homer from Dylan Crews in the seventh inning upped Washington’s lead to 7-5. Francisco Alvarez made it a one-run game with a solo shot in the eighth, but Josiah Gray pitched a scoreless ninth to notch his first save of the season for the Nats.
The offensive bright spots were Bichette and Benge, with Juan Soto also having a two-hit night. There weren’t many pitching bright spots, but Justin Hagenman threw four innings of one-run ball as he tried to clean up the mess left by the other relievers.
The loss also had some minor significance in the standings. It put Washington three games ahead of the Mets in the NL East standings, thus assuring a basement finish for a team that’s been one of the biggest disappointments in baseball this season.
There are still two more obligatory games to be played, with Saturday’s contest moved up to 12:35 to try to avoid the storm that’s still raging in the Northeast. Right-hander Jonah Tong will get his final start of the season for the Mets, with Connelly Early taking the ball for Washington.
