The Mets gave up six runs early, scored just twice, and blew a couple of bases-loaded opportunities in a loss to the Nationals on Thursday night.
The Mets began a four-game series with the Nationals with an unspectacular loss. Bartolo Colon wasn’t good and got ejected for twice hitting a batter after giving up a home run, and the Mets scored just twice and mostly wasted a couple of bases-loaded opportunities in the process.
Colon gave up a one-out single in the first inning, and one out later, Adam LaRoche—who has a knack for hitting against the Mets, it seems—took him deep off the netting of the right field foul pole. Colon hit Ian Desmond with a pitch after that, a seemingly insignificant mistake at the time, and got out of the inning without any further damage.
With the Mets struggling against Washington starter Tanner Roark, Colon got into more trouble in the third. Jayson Werth hit a one-out double, and LaRoche then singled to give the Nationals a 3-0 lead. Colon then got a comebacker from Ian Desmond, but when Colon threw the ball to second for what could have been an inning-ending double play, neither Wilmer Flores nor Dilson Herrera was covering the bag. Both runners were safe, and after Bryce Harper singled to load the bases, another comebacker went awry, as Colon couldn’t quite field it for another potential inning-ending double play. The Mets got just one out on the play, allowing the Nationals to score their fourth run of the game.
That was it for Washington’s scoring in the third, but after a Denard Span bunt single to begin the top of the fourth, Colon gave up a two-run home run to Anthony Rendon. Down 6-0, he followed that up by hitting Jayson Werth with a pitch and was promptly ejected from the game by the home plate umpire. Terry Collins got tossed, too, after making a case for his pitcher.
The Mets finally scored a run in the bottom of the fifth when Anthony Recker, who had entered the game for Travis d’Arnaud, hit a solo home run to begin the inning. After the game, Terry Collins told the press that d’Arnaud’s been dealing with a wrist injury and was taken out mid-game to get some rest.
In the seventh inning, the Mets loaded the bases and scored a run on a Dilson Herrera single, but Wilmer Flores grounded into an inning-ending double play. They went on to load the bases again in the eighth, but they failed to score any runs in that inning, too. So even though Daisuke Matsuzaka, Erik Goeddel, Dario Alvarez, and Gonzalez Germen kept the Nationals off the board from the fourth through ninth innings, the Mets were unable to come back.
And to top things off, Daniel Murphy was hit on the forearm with a pitch late in the game and left early, though x-rays after the game came up negative.
SB Nation GameThreads
* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* Federal Baseball GameThread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Travis d’Arnaud, +8.4% WPA
Big losers: Bartolo Colon, -34.9% WPA, Wilmer Flores, -13.6% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Travis d’Arnaud’s single in the second to put runners on the corners with nobody out, +8.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Adam LaRoche’s two-run home run in the first, -21.2% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -32.0% WPA
Total batter WPA: -18.0% WPA
GWRBI!: Adam LaRoche’s third-inning single