The Mets fought late to come back and take the lead against the Washington Nationals just to blow it in the ninth and lost to their division rivals, 5-4, on Friday night.
Here are the takeaways...
-New York entered the top of the eighth inning down 3-0 after Jake Irvin spent the entire evening dicing them up, allowing just five hits -- all singles -- in 7.1 innings. But with a runner on first and one out, Washington manager Dave Martinez pulled the right-hander after 98 pitches and went to his shaky bullpen. The decision did not pay off.
-With two outs, Juan Soto singled, Pete Alonso walked and with the bases loaded, Brandon Nimmo hit one up the middle that found enough of a hole to drive in a run.
Now facing Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan, Mark Vientos dumped one just inside the right-field line, where right fielder Dylan Crews made a diving attempt but came up empty. The do-or-die play by a young player cleared the bases to give the Mets the lead and put Vientos on third for his first triple of the season and the second of his career.
-With their first lead of the night, center fielder Tyrone Taylor made an excellent play in the bottom of the eighth inning, throwing out Luis Garcia Jr. at second base, trying to extend a single into a double. The assist helped Reed Garrett pitch a scoreless inning as the reliever has still not allowed an earned run this season.
-Crews made up for his lapse in judgment on the dive attempt with a leadoff triple to start the last of the ninth against Ryne Stanek, who was vying for the save. While the ball was hit hard and traveled to the warning track, Soto had a glove on it and had a chance to catch it, but the ball went off his glove. Jose Tena tied the game with a single.
-A.J. Minter replaced Stanek and got CJ Abrams to ground into a force out for the second out, but put a lot of speed at first base. That came back to bite New York after James Wood singled to center on a slowly hit ball. With Taylor playing back and having to run in for the ball, Abrams never stopped running and slid home in front of the tag at the plate to give Washington the walk-off win.
-On the walk-off hit by Wood, Jeff McNeil -- in his first game back from the IL -- made a poor effort on the ball, which ultimately allowed the winning run to score.
-Kodai Senga got the start in the series opener and it was clear from the first inning that the right-hander was searching for his pitches as he wasn't getting a lot of swing-and-misses.
The Nationals got to him in the second inning after a mental mistake byNimmo, who threw the ball from left field to third base after a two-out hit byCrews. The gaffe allowed Crews, who, to his credit, took a wide turn at first base, to end up on second base for a double. On Senga's very next pitch,Tena ripped a single to left that drove in the game's first run and put an end to Senga's 19.2 scoreless innings streak.
After the two-out rally in the second, Washington jumped on top of Senga to lead off the third. Jacob Young singled to start the inning andAbrams tripled high off the center field wall, and just like that, three pitches into the inning, the Nats doubled their lead.
In need of a strikeout, Senga got the next best thing -- a tapper to the catcher for the first out, keeping Abrams at third. Senga would eventually strike out the next two hitters for his first two strikeouts of the night, which couldn't have come at a better time and ended the inning without further damage.
From then on, the 32-year-old locked in and retired 11 consecutive hitters following the triple. That streak was snapped with two outs in the sixth inning after Senga walked Keibert Ruiz. A second straight walk prompted pitching coach Jeremy Hefner to talk things over with the right-hander before eventually striking out Josh Bell for the final out of the inning.
Senga's final line: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K on 96 pitches (58 strikes). His season ERA rose slightly to 1.26.
-Offensively, the Mets had no answers againstIrvin, who is proving to be a nemesis of theirs.
After failing to score in the first inning following two Nationals errors on the same play -- both by first baseman Nathaniel Lowe -- New York's next best scoring opportunity came in the fourth. Nimmo andVientos singled to lead things off but were soon erased on a lineout triple play by Jesse Winker.
While not a challengeable play, instant replay showed that Lowe trapped the ball instead of catching it and the play should not have resulted in three outs. Nonetheless, first base umpire and crew chief Alfonso Marquez made the call and the inning was over, resulting in manager Carlos Mendoza coming out of the dugout and giving Marquez an earful.
It was the first triple play turned on the Mets in 15 years.
-Francisco Alvarez made his return to the lineup and had a hit. He also threw out a runner trying to steal second base.
Game MVP: CJ Abrams
The leadoff hitter went 2-for-5 with two RBI and scored the game-winning run by pushing the envelope, which paid off.
Highlights
What's next
The Mets and Nats play the second game of this four-game, wrap-around weekend series on Saturday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 4:05 p.m. on SNY.
RHP Clay Holmes (2-1, 3.16 ERA) goes against rookie RHP Brad Lord (0-2, 4.73 ERA).
