Washington Nationals Recap: Lucas Duda’s Late Heroics Lead To Nats Losing 3-2 To Mets
By Ricky Keeler
Last night, the Washington Nationals lost a tough one to the New York Mets 2-1 in the 12th inning on a walk off home run by Wilmer Flores. Tonight, it was all about Mets’ first baseman Lucas Duda. Duda hit the game tying home run in the seventh (his second of the game) and drove in the winning run with a double to left in the eighth. Behind Duda’s 3-for-3 night and some questionable bullpen decisions by Nats’ manager Matt Williams, the Mets got the win 3-2, and they are now within one game of the Nats in the NL East.
The Nats were able to get on the board first against Mets’ starter Jacob deGrom. They were able to work deGrom’s pitch count up and load the bases with two outs. That set the stage for Ian Desmond as he hit a broken bat single up the middle to drive in Yunel Escobar and Jayson Werth to make it 2-0, Nationals.
However, those were the only runs the Nats would get in the game and against deGrom. Despite throwing 117 pitches, deGrom went six innings, gave up the two first inning runs on six hits, struck out seven, and walked one in a no-decision.
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As for Nats’ starter Joe Ross, he did not give up a hit for the first 3.2 innings. Then, Lucas Duda, who walked to start the second inning, hit a solo shot to right center to cut the lead to 2-1.
Three innings later, Duda continued to hurt the Nationals. Williams left Ross in to start the seventh and the Mets’ first baseman made him pay. On a first pitch fastball, Duda hit a solo home run to left, his 20th of the season, to tie the game at two.
Those home runs were the only mistakes Ross would make. He went 6.1 innings, gave up two runs on four hits, struck out six, and walked one on 92 pitches (64 strikes) in a no-decision. Casey Janssen would come in for Ross and and would end up keeping the game tied by getting Travis d’Arnaud to ground out to short and after an intentional walk to Juan Uribe, he got Ruben Tejada to ground out to first to end the inning.
After Hansel Robles (who was pitching for the fourth game in a row) retired the Nats in order in the eighth, Williams elected to go to Matt Thornton to begin the bottom of the inning. Curtis Granderson started it off with a leadoff double to right. Then, the Nats elected to walk new Met Yoenis Cespedes intentionally to face Duda. That decision would backfire as Duda would hit a double to left field to score Granderson and put New York in front for the first time tonight.
Mets’ closer Jeurys Familia would get Desmond to fly out to right, Wilson Ramos to ground out to short, and Michael Taylor to strike out swinging in the top of the ninth, to pick up his 28th save of the season and his first save since the All-Star Break. Robles (3-2, 3.82) would get the win while Thornton (1-1, 2.19) took the loss.
Next Game: The Washington Nationals (54-48) will wrap up their ten game road trip tomorrow night against the New York Mets (54-40) at Citi Field. You can catch the game at 8:08 PM ET on ESPN. Jordan Zimmermann (8-6, 3.36) gets the start for the Nats against Noah Syndergaard (5-5, 2.70) for the Mets.