Four days ago the Mets held a 3.5 game lead in the NL East over the Phillies. With tonight's heinous loss in Washington, that lead has been whittled to a can't-be-any-smaller-while-still-maintaining-the-properties-of-a-lead advantage of just a half-game. They also have a theoretical half-game lead for the Wild Card, which means there may be a consolation prize awaiting them if they blow this thing again.

The Mets don't deserve all of the blame for this loss. John Lannan was very good tonight; the Mets didn't get many good swings against him. Pedro Martinez was not good, again. He wasn't awful, but the Nationals are among the worst teams in baseball in almost every offensive category, so if you can't hold them in check you're going to have a tough go of it against the better teams in the league.

And the bullpen is back to full-on meltdown mode. Duaner Sanchez shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a pitcher's mound unless he has a rake and a bag of dirt. What will tomorrow bring? Only Kreskin knows for sure. Bad things are afoot at the Circle Shea.

Big winners: Luis Castillo, +4.7% WPA, Ryan Church, +1.6% WPA
Big losers: Pedro Martinez, -12.9% WPA, David Wright, -12.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Schneider leadoff double in third, +6.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: IPOR two-run single, -15.4% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -17.9%
Total batter WPA: -32.1%
GWRBI: Anderson Hernandez

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.