Mets drop series finale against Nationals, 4-3

The New York Mets (49-46) were four outs away from taking the rubber game in a three-game series against the Washington Nationals.

Unfortunately, the bullpen couldn’t hold the fort and allowed the Nats to score three runs in the bottom of the eighth that sealed their fate in this Wednesday afternoon game.

Game Recap:

The Mets and Nationals were in a scoreless stalemate until the heroes donning the away gray jersey made noise in the top of the fourth inning.

After Ruben Tejada and Daniel Murphy singled to lead off the inning, Kirk Nieuwenhuis drove them both in with a double to left-center field. Kevin Plawecki followed up with a single up the middle to give the Noah Syndergaard and the Mets a 3-0 lead.

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The Nationals fought back in the bottom half of the frame, thanks to a RBI single off the bat of Michael Taylor to shrink the Mets lead to 3-1.

After throwing five effective, yet inefficient innings, Syndergaard was relieved by Hansel Robles in the bottom of the sixth.

And immediate, Robles allowed the first two hitters on and faced a bit of a dilemma. A sacrifice bunt advanced both runners and the Nationals had something cooking with two runners in scoring position with only one out.

Fortunately for the Mets, the Nationals panicked, similar to the Mets, and stranded both runners after Robles struck out Taylor and got Danny Espinosa to ground out.

Crisis adverted.

Jenrry Mejia came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh and was perfect, only needing 14 pitches to complete the inning.

Things look good for the Mets until the following inning. Bobby Parnell came up and gave up three runs all with two outs in the inning. With runners on first and second, Parnell careless threw a wild pitch, advancing both runners, before Taylor came up to bat and singled both runners home.

Taylor stole second, then scored on the following batter off of a single. Nationals now had a 4-3 lead heading into the 9th inning.

With three outs to work with in the ninth, the Mets went down quietly, 1-2-3.

Highlights:

Ruben Tejada has a ten-game hitting streak. Yes, ten games.
Noah Syndergaard tossed five innings, striking out four and walking five batters. The silver lining of this start is that Thor was able to escape trouble every time he faced it.
Lucas Duda continues to struggle in July. Over the last 30 days, Duda has had an .OPS below .600, which isn’t very good.
Bobby Parnell imploded in his inning of work, allowing three runs off three hits. He also walked two batters in the inning.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis drove in two of the runs for the Mets, while Plawecki drove in the other.

Thoughts:

On this Wednesday matinee game, the Mets experienced the best of both worlds.

They had Noah Syndergaard look both impressive and out-of-control during his five innings of work.

They had the bullpen, spotless for two innings, before faltering in one inning.

They had timely hits to drive in three runs, but yet they still were only 2-for-7 with RISP.

They made a great move, pulling Syndergaard after his five innings of work, but they made a bonehead move leaving Parnell in with two outs in the eighth.

It was a game the Mets should’ve stole from the Nationals, but in the end, they couldn’t get the job done.

A less than impressive Mets team should’ve taken two-out-of-three against a banged up Nationals team, but they didn’t.

It’s infuriating, annoying, and to be honest, someone maddening.

But, hey, maybe they can take the weekend series against the Dodgers that has them against Clayton Kershaw and Zach Greinke, right?

Up Next:

The Mets return home to begin a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bartolo Colon will take the mound, opposed by Clayton Kershaw.