The Mets and Nationals played an absolute slog of a game that lasted a little over four hours, but the Mets won 16-7 in the end. And hey, that beats the alternative.
The Mets got on the board first when Luis Torrens doubled on a ball that just passed over third base as it made its way down the left field line, driving in Tyrone Taylor in the process. But the Nationals answered with a pair of runs off Mets starter Christian Scott in the bottom of the inning. Jose Tena drove in a run with a double to tie
the game, and later in the inning, he scored on a Drew Millas single to give the Nationals a 2-1 lead.
Washington added a run in the bottom of the third and really should’ve scored another. Joey Wiemer, who entered the game in place of Jacob Young after the latter took a fastball from Scott to the ribs, doubled in a run to extend the lead. Daylen Lile looked like he would’ve scored a fourth run for the Nationals, but he stumbled as he rounded third base and had to retreat. Scott escaped the inning without further damage.
Brett Baty hit an absolute shot of a solo home run in the top of the fourth to cut the Nationals’ lead in half, and a two-run single from Juan Soto put the Mets back in front in the top of the fifth.
While Scott only went four innings, Austin Warren threw a pair of scoreless innings, and Bo Bichette finally notched his first extra-base hit in forever with a solo home run to left-center in the top of the seventh. The Mets had a 5-3 lead.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough. Brooks Raley had his worst appearance of the season—and one of his worst as a Met—in the bottom of the inning. He served up a leadoff double to James Wood, issued back-to-back walks to load the bases, and gave up a sacrifice fly that got the Nationals within one.
Tobias Myers took over for Raley and go out of the inning with the lead intact, but Myers gave up a run of his own in the bottom of the eighth when Curtis Mead doubled to tie the game.
Luke Weaver got into trouble in the bottom of the ninth, too, but he managed to get through the inning and send the game to extra innings. And after the Mets failed to score with the free runner in the top of the tenth, thanks largely to Mark Vientos grounding into an inning-ending double play, Huascar Brazobán kept with the late-inning bullpen theme. He loaded the bases with one out, but he induced a weak ground ball for a force out at home plate for the second out before getting a strikeout to end the inning and send the game to the eleventh.
Marcus Semien gave the Mets the lead with a one-out sacrifice fly just a few feet shy of the left field fence in fair territory, as pinch runner Vidal Bruján, who entered the game as the free runner for a massive baserunning upgrade from Vientos, had advanced to third when Brett Baty lined out to center to begin the inning.
Once again, that was unfortunately not enough. Brazobán came back out for the bottom of the eleventh, and the cheapness of the Manfred runner was really apparent. The Nationals’ free runner advanced to third base on a soft tapper, and another weak ground ball allowed him to score the tying run.
Brazobán got the second out of the inning on a fielder’s choice grounder to first that Baty, who moved over to first after Vientos was lifted in the top of the inning, turned into an out at second base. Jorbit Vivas doubled, though, to put runners on second and third with two outs. Brazobán managed to keep the game alive again, though, when he induced a 6-3 ground ball to get the game to the twelfth.
And then the Mets scored ten runs in the top of the twelfth, as they scored five against Nationals reliever Paxton Schultz before Washington decided to give up on the game and put a position player on the mound. There was confusion among the umpires about whether or not that was allowed, which delayed the inning for a few minutes. But the Mets scored five more as they teed up on position player-turned pitcher Vivas.
That was—thank goodness—finally enough. Craig Kimbrel pitched the bottom of the twelfth and gave up a run, but he managed to finish the game without allowing more.
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