The Mets scored four runs in the first inning but the Nationals tied it up by the fifth. The Mets’ bullpen was brilliant, pitching 4.2 hitless innings and the offense sprung back to life in the ninth, plating six runs en route to a 13-6-win Sunday afternoon in Washington D.C.
The Mets banged out 16 hits in the game, four of which went for homers. Kevin Pillar put the cherry on top with a grand slam homer in the ninth, just the third home run this year for the Mets with the bases loaded.
There were plenty of offensive stars for the Mets. Javier Baez had four hits and reached base five time, including a solo homer. Five other players had multi-hit games, including Pete Alonso, who had three hits. Two of Alonso’s hits were bullets that hit the wall and went for doubles. Francisco Lindor also homered for the Mets in the ninth and Jonathan Villar went yard, too.
Taijuan Walker was staked to a four-run lead but couldn’t hold it, plagued by some gopher ball issues himself. He only lasted 4.1 IP and gave up two homers. He left with two runners on base and was bailed out by Jeurys Familia, who struck out both batters he faced.
Familia was in position but couldn’t vulture the win this time, as the Mets didn’t score again until the eighth inning. Aaron Loup got the win to raise his record to 5-0 for the year. Miguel Castro, Trevor May and Yennsy Diaz were the other Met relievers to blank the Nats.
The five-game series concludes tomorrow with a 1:05 start.
Winning tomorrow is important. A 3-2 trip and a 4-1 trip are way different when you’re fighting to get to the top. Atlanta will falter but Philly may not. Have to keep winning.
I noticed that my last two posts haven’t given the five minute grace period to edit. Has something changed?
Gus, I just commented as “Site Admin” on Chris F’s post and it gave the the 5 minutes to edit.
I just left one also and it gave me the edit grace time. Just kind of a shrug thing.
It is refreshing hearing sports commentators describing the Mets as currently the hottest team in baseball. Not only have the bats come alive, the relief pitching has been very strong. With the exception of Walker’s earlier than planned exit, the starters have also been giving us 5-6 innings. Unfortunately we have only Stroman pitching like a #1 or 2, Megill as a #3 and the rest recently pitching more like they are contending for a group of #5s. I guess this is what you call a team effort. 25 games to go and 3.5 back is not as insurmountable as 8.5 back just ten days ago. So if you want to dream a little and Jake comes back and Thor goes to the pen and Brad Hand remembers that he used to be a top reliever, and Baez and Lindor go on a tear, and, well you know where I am heading. It would be a great improvement to reach the playoffs and give us a huge building block to the off-season and year two of the Cohen Correction projection. It’s always great to channel our inner Tug with a Ya Gotta Believe.