Gut Reaction: Mets 5 Nationals 3 (4/29/17)

Well, this was most unexpected.

After listless, lethargic play, after horrible fielding, horrible luck and horrible injuries on their 1-7 homestand, the Mets have hit the road and taken two straight from their division-leading tormentors, the Washington Nationals. Away from Citi Field, the play has been crisper and the excitement level raised. The Mets took the play to the Nats these two games and gotten the better of them both times.

Today, Zack Wheeler squared off against Stephen Strasburg on a hot afternoon in Washington, with three busloads of the 7 Line Army braying away in centerfield. Wheeler kept making trouble for himself, then getting away relatively unscathed. In the first, he gave up a hard double to Michael A. Taylor with one out. After a Bryce Harper strikeout, Ryan Zimmerman cemented his bona fides as 2017’s RBI machine. Zimmerman lined a single to left and the Nationals led it 1-0. After that, Wheeler put the leadoff man on in each of the second, third and fourth innings via walks and in the fifth on an error by third baseman Jose Reyes. He was helped out in the fourth by a bizarre play. Jayson Werth led off with — what else? — a walk. Wheeler then worked the count to 3-2 on Jose Lobaton, who struck out. Werth was running on that strike three pitch, though, and the throw wasn’t handled by shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera. As Cabrera scrambled to retrieve the ball, he and Werth got tangled up as Werth tried to advance to third. It was assumed that obstruction had been called on Cabrera and that Werth would be awarded third base anyway, but umpire Angel Hernandez waved off the obstruction for some reason and Werth was thrown out by yards. Finally, the Mets got themselves a break and they would make the most of it.

Strasburg gave up a leadoff single to Michael Conforto in the first, then basically nothing more, retiring seven in a row until Wheeler’s surprise single in the third. Then nothing again until the top of the fifth. Reyes shattered his bat looping a base hit to right. T. J. Rivera banged a double off the left field wall as Reyes held on at third. The Mets tied the game on a Travis d’Arnaud groundout as Rivera was gunned out at third on a heady play by Daniel Murphy. Wheeler got a bunt down, moving d’Arnaud to second, but Conforto rendered the play at third moot, drilling a home run deep into the right field bleachers. Wheeler had trouble holding the 3-1 lead, though, as the Reyes error, a base hit by Taylor and another RBI single by Zimmerman brought the Nats back within one. Terry Collins had seen enough after that hit and 96 pitches from Wheeler. He waved in Friday’s hero, Josh Edgin, to get Murphy to fly out to right. In the top of the eighth, Conforto struck again, clubbing a 3-1 pitch into the left field seats this time off lefthander Enny Romero. Again, the Nationals got the run back right away, when That Man Zimmerman struck again, hitting a long homer to left off Addison Reed. Reed gave up a double to Werth, but got pinch-hitter Matt Wieters to fly out to right on the first pitch he saw. With two out in the top of the ninth, Jose Reyes hit his second home run in three days to seal the 5-3 victory.

One can’t let this game account end without mentioning the absolutely horrible day presumptive MVP Bryce Harper had. In four at-bats, he struck out three times and hit into a big double play that short circuited the Nats’ fifth inning rally. It was nice to get a measure of revenge for the pasting he put on the Mets last week. Whatever the Mets are doing to keep him down, let’s hope they keep it up.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the Mets will go for the sweep tomorrow with Noah Syndergaard taking the mound.