Nationals 5, Mets 4 Final
After a thrilling and unexpected walkoff win Wednesday night against the Phillies, there was no reason to expect anything the next day. So it was thrilling to watch the Mets hold their own against the reigning Cy Young Award winner, knocking on the door and never letting the Nationals run away with the game, even bringing the winning run to the plate in the ninth.
It’s a sign of how painful it is to follow this team that minimal competence is exciting, but here we are, celebrating a professional start from their pitcher and an offense that acts like they at least belong in this league. That’s the 2018 Mets: looking up at the cellar.
For Washington, it was the Anthony Rendon and Bryce Harper show; the two players accounted for all five runs. The Nats’ third baseman drove in three runs with two homers off an otherwise very solid Steven Matz. Harper’s two-run home run came in the seventh off Jerry Blevins.
Jose Bautista accounted for the first two Mets runs — driving in Asdrubal Cabrera in the first, and then hitting a solo home run to lead off the fourth. Kevin Plawecki hit a solo home run off Scherzer in the seventh, and Asdrubal Cabrera hit a solo home run off Kelvin Herrera in the eighth. Plawecki led off the ninth with a single, putting the tying run on base, but Ryan Madson got the save, his fourth of the year.
Max Scherzer was strangely mortal last night, as the Mets touched him for three runs (two of them off home runs) in seven innings of work.
Matz provided a quality start, throwing exactly one hundred pitches in six and a third innings, striking out four, surrendering only the three runs off Rendon’s bat.
Tonight Noah Syndergaard (4-1, 3.06) makes his return off the DL versus Tanner Roark (3-11, 4.76); first pitch is at 7:10 p.m/
NOTES
The SNY broadcast team noted that July 12 was National Different Colored Eyes Day, which was fitting for a Max Scherzer start.