In a battle of lousy bullpens, the saving grace was Edwin Diaz, who came on to close the deal in the ninth, as the Mets emerged with a 6-5 win over the Nationals Saturday afternoon at Citi Field.

Steven Matz pitched five shutout innings but a high pitch count – thanks to 4 BB and 8 Ks – forced him to leave the game early. Mets relievers allowed five runs in the sixth through eighth innings and turned a 3-1 lead into a 5-3 deficit.

But the bullpen for the Nats was just as bad. In the eighth inning, Pete Alonso and Robinson Cano led off with back-to-back homers to tie the game. Those were the fourth and fifth solo homers of the game for the Mets, as J.D. Davis left the yard twice and Michael Conforto also went deep earlier in the game. For Conforto, it was his fourth career homer against Patrick Corbin.

Conforto delivered a two-out double and came around to score the game winner on an opposite field single by Keon Broxton. It was his first RBI as a Met.

Diaz had a 1-2-3 ninth for the save, making a winner out of Jeurys Familia, who allowed two homers in a game for the first time as a major leaguer. It was a brutal outing for Familia, who was probably the least deserving pitcher of the day for the Mets. But he now sits tied with Jacob deGrom with 2-0 records.

12 comments on “Gut Reaction: Mets 6, Nationals 5 (4/6/2019)

  • David Klein

    Much deserved win for Familia he pitched to the scoreboard and should get carried off the field on his teammates shoulders and tip his cap

    • Michael

      There should be some rule that gives the official scorer some leeway in awarding a win. Not that Matz pitched lights out but he was certainly more deserving. Disgraceful.

      • TexasGusCC

        Michael, the official scorer is the person awarding the win. However, nowadays no one has the guts to veer from what is the “accepted way”, so whoever is in the game when the team goes ahead for good gets the “W” whether they deserve it or not.

        • Brian Joura

          There are specific rules that dictate who gets credit for a win. The only time the official scorer has discretion on who gets the win is when the starter does not go five innings, he exits with his team in the lead and the team holds the lead for the rest of the game.

  • David Klein

    Alonso has crazy power and Davis hits the ball ridiculously hard just needs to hit the ball in the air. Oh and Broxton should play over Lagsres with his power and walk rate. One more thing screw the fans that booed Nimmo.

  • Eraff

    Nice nice win

  • Metsense

    My gut reaction is that this team has resilience, character and enthusiasm. His past record shows that Familia will not blow leads and give up two homers in a game too often. JD Davis finally exhibited his power bat that might secure him a bench position on this team. I will take 5 innings of shut out ball from the 4th starter anytime. Diaz has lived up to our expections. All the homers were nice but the icing on the cake was the opposite field hit that Broxton delivered with the winning run. Broxton is a more rounded player than Lagares. Let’s get the winning series game Sunday. LGM

    • Bloom

      First time familia s ever done it.

  • TJ

    All wins count the same, but some count a little more. This one counted just a little more.

  • NYM6986

    Loved the long ball display and all the whining about Davis that stopped with his two HRs. I was one whining about him playing over McNeil. Guess Brodie knew what he was getting. Five from Matz was good, six would be better next time and if he pitches to more contact he will get there. Agree that Broxton at this point deserves some more playing time ang hoping Chili does a fix on Nimmo. Big game today. Which Wheels will show up?

  • Eraff

    Alonzo has the stuff to be a very nice hitter at this level….Broxton and JD are beginning to create a tough decision on Juan—–all 3 need the ab’s at some level. JD has some options. He’d be wise to embrace a AAA assignment, if it comes to that—he may have a very nice upside, but needs to learn an OF Glove and master the 3rd base position

    Matz was encouraging

    • Bloom

      Wasn’t one of the selling pts on him that he could play all 4 corners?

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