Taijuan Walker pitched seven shutout innings to help lift the Mets to a 4-1 win over the Nationals Thursday afternoon in the rubber game of the series. With the win, the Mets kept their streak of not losing a series alive. In 10 series to start the season, the Mets have won nine and tied the other. It’s resulted in a 22-11 record and first place in the NL East.
Once again, the Mets scored in the top of the first inning. Only this time, the starter didn’t give it back. Walker looked uncomfortable on the mound but made quick work of the Nationals in the first. During the top of the second, SNY cameras caught Walker with his jacket heading to the clubhouse. Turned out he was getting his back wrapped. The announcers immediately said he was getting heat.
Whatever ailed Walker didn’t prohibit him from keeping the Nats at bay all afternoon. It was an efficient outing for Walker and under normal circumstances, he might have gone out for another frame. His final line was 7 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 1 BB and 1 K in 85 pitches.
Meanwhile, the Nats’ starter had trouble throwing strikes and he loaded the bases on walks in the top of the first inning. Might have walked in a run, too, but it looked like the ump missed a call giving Pete Alonso a strike. Mark Canha came thru with a two-run single to give the Mets the lead.
Canha was involved in the other two Mets runs, too. He singled to lead off the fourth inning, went to second when J.D. Davis was hit by a pitch and scored on a single by Tomas Nido. And in the ninth, Canha hit his second homer of the year.
The Mets are now 5-2 against the Nats and 13-7 against the NL East. They’ll venture outside the division on the upcoming homestand, when they’ll host the Mariners and the Cardinals.
2 out of every 3 will play. But it really would be nice now to run off a string of victories and sweep a series or two. Tough to do against the upcoming opponents. I can see us winning the first two against the Mariners, but they have Robbie Ray going in the finale. And the Cardinals are always tough, although I think we have some fire in our bellies against them this season. And we’ll get them at home with what should be Megill looking to bounce back, Walker, and Scherzer.
Stress free win today was nice.
It was a nice win and another successful series in the books. They can use Canha getting hot to show us the bat we traded for. By the way Brian, thanks for taking the time to report on every single game. It is an honor to be part of this site!
Gut Reaction: This team plays the game of baseball the right way. Marte’s backup on the errant throw was impressive. Another play he backup Nimmo and prevented a triple. That is winning baseball.
They’re at home to continue the series win streak. They should take Seattle 2-1. LGM
The Mets are exactly at .667, winning 2/3 every series. Thats a winning formula and a 108 W pace. A .620 nets 100 W and would certainly win the division is my estimation. Its a long way off, but being in Mid May, 11 over .500 is pretty satisfying.
I was shcoked to see the yankees doing even better, not really paying much attn. Even when the Mets are doing great, the yankees can still find a way to pee in the punchbowl.
Im coming round more to Wobbits thought o needing to bank some sweeps to ramp up the margins while we can. April and May have been pretty soft from a scheduling perspective, but June looks brutal, with an aim to escape above .500.
I’m not sure what to make of Walker.
First start comes out banging, striking out 4 of the 6 batters faced.
Then since coming off the DL, has faced 74 batters and only struck out 4 of them.
In fact, since his injury, he’s given up more walks (5) than strikeouts (4) in 16 innings while having 2 good starts and 1 bad start.
While i’m usually advocating for pitchers to try for quick contact outs, the 2.25 k/9 is so low here that is should be alarming. His career rate is 8.1 k/9. The strikeout rate needs to be at least in the 5s to be sustainable (see Mark Buehrle), but this doesn’t unless Walker has discovered a formula never seen in baseball. Something’s gotta give.
Really good post. He seems to be an anomaly… huge guy, great athlete, always hurting something… usually effective, sometimes not. The inexplicable year last season. Really good when good… almost effortless. A wild card for sure.