By Zachary McMahon –
The Washington Nationals faced the New York Mets in the opener of the three-game series at Nationals Park in Washington, DC. The Nats avoided the sweep in the weekend series against the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday, while the Mets lost the last two games of the four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Nats catcher Drew Millas started at catcher after being called back up from Triple-A Rochester for the second time this season, while Riley Adams was called back down.
The Nats had Mackenzie Gore on the mound as he would go 4 ⅓ innings, with seven hits, six earned runs, and four walks in the rough outing. The scoring started with a sacrifice fly from Harrison Bader to center fielder Lane Thomas that scored Starling Marte home for the 1-0 lead in the second inning.
Jesse Winker tied the game up in the bottom half with an RBI single that scored Nick Senzel home. Gore then allowed a solo homer by Mark Vientos, and an RBI single by Francisco Lindor in the fourth inning to take a two-run lead.
Washington took the lead on a two-run homer by Joey Gallo, but quickly gave it back up when Bader hit his second sacrifice fly of the game to center field with the bases loaded, a Jose Iglesias RBI single, and a bases-clearing two-run double from Luis Torrens to make it 7-4 Mets.
The Nats tried to come back, with Winker adding two more RBIs with a walk, and a single, and a sacrifice fly by Joey Meneses, who pinch hit Gallo that scored Keibert Ruiz home to cut the deficit to one run, but it would not be enough as Jake Diekman would strike out Millas to close out his second save of the season after taking over for Adam Ottavino before the Meneses sac fly as the Nats would fall short 8-7.
The Nats will be playing the second game of the series on Tuesday at 6:45 pm as Trevor
Williams will be going up against David Peterson on the mound.
Sports Insider Daily 