Jul 31, 2015; New York City, NY, USA; New York Mets shortstop Wilmer Flores (4) rounds the bases on his walk off home run to left during the twelfth inning against the Washington Nationals at Citi Field. New York Mets won 2-1 in twelve innings. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
It was a playoff atmosphere at Citi Field last night as the Washington Nationals began a three game series at Citi Field against the New York Mets. The Nats entered play with a three game lead in the NL East and were looking to keep their psychological advantage over the Mets. However, that ended up not being the case. In the bottom of the 12th inning, Wilmer Flores, who was nearly traded two days ago by the Mets for Carlos Gomez, hit a leadoff walk-off home run against Felipe Rivero to cap a crazy game.
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Both teams know they had to get the win and it was a matter of who would blink first. The game could easily be summed up in one at-bat. That came in the top of the eighth inning when former Nats’ setup man Tyler Clippard squared off against Jayson Werth in a 13-pitch at-bat. Clippard would end up striking out Werth looking, but it was an entertaining at-bat to watch.
Before extra innings, the Nationals offense could not get a hit against Matt Harvey for the first five innings, but they finally got on the board in the top of the eighth when Yunel Escobar hit a two-out RBI single to center to score Danny Espinosa, who was pinch running for Clint Robinson after he was hit by a pitch.
The series will have another added twist tonight when Yoenis Cespedes is expected to make his Mets debut in left field after being traded from the Detroit Tigers yesterday. Before Jacob deGrom takes on Joe Ross tonight at 7:10 PM ET (MASN), here are my takeaways from last night’s 2-1 loss:
Next: Gonzalez struggles, but keeps Nats in game