Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The Mets starter was outstanding, the bullpen was strong and the offense didn’t do a thing.
The Mets lost their sixth straight game on Wednesday night, dropping the series finale with the Washington Nationals, 2-0, and were swept for the second straight series. They’re now 13 games under .500 for the first time this season and the offense is mostly to blame.
New York managed eight hits, but couldn’t push a single run across the plate against John Lannan and a combination of five Washington relievers. The offensive ineptitude wasted a great performance from starter Matt Harvey, who pitched five-plus innings and allowed just one run on five hits. The rookie struck out 10, his second double-digit strikeout game of the season, and walked only three.
Harvey started the game outstanding, striking out the side on just 14 pitches. He whiffed Jayson Werth swinging at a slider, froze Bryce Harper with another slider and blew Ryan Zimmerman away with a fastball. But the Mets couldn’t capitalize on a chance to give him an early lead and stranded David Wright at second in the bottom of the first. Leaving runners on was a theme of the night for the Mets. They stranded nine total, including six in scoring position.
Harvey mowed through the second, allowing just one hit and striking out two more. He whiffed another hitter in the third, his sixth strikeout over the first three innings, and worked around a walk to get out of the inning. But one mistake was Harvey’s undoing. Leading off the fourth inning for the Nats, Zimmerman launched a 1-0 fastball deep into the bleachers in left to give the Nats a 1-0 lead.
The righthander bounced back to get through the fourth and then struck out the side again in the fifth after allowing a leadoff single to Steve Lombardozzi. Harvey scuffled in the sixth, sandwiching a single around two walks to load the bases with nobody out. With the starter’s pitch count over 100, Terry Collins went to reliever Rob Carson and the rookie lefty played the role of Houdini, inducing three straight popups to escape unscathed.
The Mets’ last best opportunity to take the lead was the bottom half of the sixth when they loaded the bases with two outs. But Ike Davis flew out to center to end the inning. Washington tacked on an insurance run on an eighth inning homer by Ian Desmond off Jon Rauch and though they put the tying runs on in the ninth, New York failed to finish the comeback and Daniel Murphy flew out to end the game.
Game Ball: Matt Harvey remains one of the few bright spots in an otherwise disappointing second half of the season for the Mets. The rookie righthander took the loss to move to 3-5 on the season, but also lowered his ERA to 2.92 and pushed his strikeout total to 63 in 52.1 innings.
Turning Point: The sixth inning was really a golden opportunity put to waste. Carson stranding the bases loaded finally gave the Mets some positive momentum and David Wright carried it over with his second hit of the night in the bottom half. Wright then stole his second base of the night to move into scoring position and a Lucas Duda walk put the go-ahead run on. Davey Johnson went to his bullpen for Christian Garcia to replace Lannan, but Garcia plunked Kelly Shoppach to load the bases. That brought up Davis as a pinch hitter with the sacks packed, but Ike lifted a 2-2 changeup to center and Harper tracked it down to end the threat.
Next Up: The most miserable homestand of the season is complete and the Mets get a day off on Thursday to regroup before heading off to Milwaukee to start a three-game weekend set with the Brewers on Friday night. Jon Niese (10-9, 3.47 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 140 K) will go for the Mets in the series opener looking to stop the skid. He’ll be opposed by Brewers rookie Mike Fiers (9-7, 3.05 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 111 K). First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. and the game can be seen on SNY or heard, as always, on WFAN 660 AM.
