Washington Nationals Recap: Rough Third Inning Leads To 6-3 Loss To Mets
By Ricky Keeler
The Washington Nationals lost the first series of 2015 to the New York Mets this afternoon at Nats Park. Matt Harvey made his first start for the Mets since 2013 and dominated the Nationals. He went six innings, gave up no runs on four hits, walked one and struck out nine Nats en route to a 6-3 win. It was the Mets first series win against the Nationals since 2013.
Stephen Strasburg took the ball for the Nats this afternoon. While he walked two batters in the first inning, he escaped the inning without giving up any runs. In the top of the third, after a single by Curtis Granderson, Ian Desmond bobbled a potential double play ball hit by David Wright. It was Desmond’s third error in as many games.
After Lucas Duda was hit by a pitch, Michael Cuddyer would drive in his first RBI as a Met with a single to right field to get the scoring started. Daniel Murphy would tack on another RBI with an infield single to make it 2-0. Then, two batters later, catcher Travis d’Arnaud would drive in Duda and Cuddyer on a single to center field to extend the lead to 4-0.
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Those would be all the runs that Matt Harvey would need as he struck out six of the final 15 Nationals hitters. This included three strikeouts of Bryce Harper, who had four hits in the first two games. Harvey now has a 0.82 ERA against the Nats in five career starts against them.
New York would tack on two more runs in the top of the sixth when Wright hit a two-run single to right that scored d’Arnaud and Wilmer Flores to make it 6-0 Mets. That would end Strasburg’s day. He went 5.1 innings, gave up six runs (three earned) on nine hits, struck out five batters and walked three. Xavier Cedeno would finish the inning with strikeouts of Duda and Cuddyer.
Despite being down 6-0, the Nationals did rally against the Mets bullpen once Harvey left the game. In the bottom of the seventh, after walks by Desmond and Jose Lobaton, Michael Taylor would drive them both in with a two-run double to left off of Buddy Carlyle, who got the save in Monday’s game.
In the bottom of the ninth, Reed Johnson would score the final run of the game with a RBI single to right off of Jeurys Familia that scored Desmond, who had doubled to lead off the inning.
After Cedeno left the game, the duo of Tanner Roark and Aaron Barrett did their job over the final three innings. They combined to give up only one hit and strike out two batters.
The Nationals now will head to Philadelphia to begin a six-game road trip on Friday night. They will take on the Phillies at 7:05 PM ET at Citizens Bank Park. Gio Gonzalez will make his first start of 2015 against Jerome Williams. You can catch the game on MASN2.