Washington Nationals Recap: Nats Lose 7-2 Despite A Good Effort From Joe Ross
By Nick Engle
The Washington Nationals lost the second game of a three-game set in a sloppy, error filled effort against the New York Mets by a final score of 7-2.
The Nationals started Joe Ross while the Mets trotted out Jacob deGrom and this was a pitcher’s duel early in the evening. Both pitchers faced the minimum through three innings and the Mets were the first to break through in the top of the fourth against Ross.
Ross gave up a leadoff single to Curtis Granderson and he took second on a possible hit-and-run play gone wrong when Wilson Ramos double clutched and was unable to throw out Granderson. Ramos may have thought Granderson was not going and did not throw until it was too late. Ruben Tejada was then able to move Granderson to third with a ground out and two batters later, Wilmer Flores singled to make the score 1-0.
The Nationals answered quickly in the bottom of the fifth when Yunel Escobar started the inning with a double. Two batters later, Wilson Ramos picked up Escobar with an opposite-field blast to make it 2-1.
Joe Ross was able to rebound after the fourth and pitched his way into the seventh, where he gave up a lead-off single to Flores and an odd double to Kirk Nieuwenhuis, which was very close to being foul down the first-base line, and left the game with runners on second and third. Unfortunately for Ross, Aaron Barrett was unable to pick up the rookie and gave up a single to pinch-hitter Eric Campbell that would score two to put the Mets up 3-2.
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The score remained 3-2 until things got a little weird for the Nats and the Mets broke the game open in the top of the ninth against Tanner Roark.
Kevin Plawecki started things off with a routine single, but Danny Espinosa was unable to handle the throw in from Matt den Dekker and Plawecki ended up on third. Roark then walked Michael Cuddyer and, after striking out Juan Lagares, Granderson came through with a single to drive in Plawecki. Ruben Tejada and Daniel Murphy would follow up with back-to-back singles to score Granderson and Cuddyer. Wilmer Flores was able to cap the scoring at four with a groundout to Ian Desmond to score Tejada making it 7-2.
The Nats tried to rally in the bottom of the ninth with Espinosa beating out an infield single and Bryce Harper getting hit by a pitch, but they could not overcome the deep hole and they would fall to the Mets, 7-2.
Next Game: The Washington Nationals (50-42) will play the series finale of their three-game set against the New York Mets (49-45) tomorrow afternoon at 12:35 PM ET. You can catch the game on MASN. Noah Syndergaard (4-5, 3.05 ERA) will get the start for the Mets against Jordan Zimmermann (8-5, 3.27 ERA) for the Nats.