Washington Nationals’ Home Run Parade Fuels Win Over Mets

The Washington Nationals took down the New York Mets, 7-4, Tuesday in the rematch between Stephen Strasburg and Matt Harvey. Strasburg recorded his fifth double-digit strikeout performance of the season and Daniel Murphy homered to help the Nats even up the series.

After handling Matt Harvey to the tune of nine runs (six earned) in less than three innings of work the last time he faced Washington, the Nats (28-18) came out swinging once again, and it wasn’t pretty for the Dark Knight.

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Asdrubal Cabrera put the Mets ahead 1-0 in the top of the fourth with a solo homer, but they would not hold the lead for long. The Nats responded quickly in the bottom of the frame. Ryan Zimmerman crushed his sixth home run of the year to left field to tie the game, and Anthony Rendon followed in the next at-bat with a long ball of his own to give the Nats a 2-1 lead.

The Nationals continued to dial Harvey’s number in the fifth. Ben Revere led off the inning with a double off the center field wall, and moved to third on a single off the bat of Jayson Werth. Bryce Harper brought home Revere with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1. The big swing of the inning, however, was courtesy of former Met Daniel Murphy. The clean up man crushed a 1-1 pitch into the outfield seats for the Nats third homer of the game to push the lead to four.

The Mets (26-19) struck back in the seventh, scoring Yoenis Cespedes on an Eric Campbell groundball that almost resulted in a double play. Strasburg would stay in for one batter, striking out Ty Kelly in a nine-pitch battle. Felipe Rivero relieved the Nats’ right-hander and struck out Juan Lagares to end the inning. Strasburg allowed two runs on four hits, one walk, and eleven strikeouts. He is now 8-0 on the season.

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Washington’s home run parade continued in the seventh. Revere hit his fifth home run of his career to lead off the frame. Wilson Ramos joined the parade in the eighth, crushing a no-doubter to give the Nats a 7-2 lead.

Felipe Rivero pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, and Dusty Baker called Shawn Kelley, who entered the game with a 0.00 ERA, to close it out for the home team. Campbell would spoil the parade, however, hitting a line drive homer that barely cleared the left field wall with Neil Walker on base to bring the score to 7-4. Kelley would then settle down, striking out Kevin Plawecki and forcing Ty Kelly to ground out to end the game.

Next Up: The Nationals and Mets finish up the series with a rubber match Wednesday. Steven Matz (6-1, 2.81 ERA) will get the ball for New York to take on Tanner Roark (3-3, 2.89). First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET.