Gut reaction: Nationals 5, Mets 0 – 6/28/2016

The good news is, June is almost over. This seems to be a killer month for this team. The bad news, well, there’s quite a bit. We lost our third game in a row and the second game in a row to our division rivals. Our feeble offense was shut out yet again. When you look back on it, there were two forces of nature working against us – we never hit new pitchers well, particularly when they are stud prospects like Lucas Giolito (Julio Urias was the one exception in recent memory) and we never play well in games that include rain delays. Remember last year’s midseason disaster against San Diego? Maybe, just maybe, like last year, we turn it around from here.

Adding to the growing pile of bad news, both Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz have been diagnosed with elbow spurs that they will have to labor through the season with, before tending to them in the offseason.

Matt Harvey wasn’t terrible, allowing one run through 3 2/3 innings, before the skies opened up. However, this was enough to tag him with his astounding 10th loss of the season. Jerry Blevins coughed up a two-run dinger to Bryce Harper coughed up two insurance runs after that. The Mets offense mustered just five hits in this game and to add salt in the wound, our old friend Ollie Perez ended our one rally in relief.

The Wednesday rubber match would seem to be an important game to avoid the sweep, but the struggling Logan Verrett will take the hill in place of the resting Steven Matz and he’ll face Cy Young winner Max Scherzer. Who knows, maybe the Mets will surprise us.