Nationals 6, Mets 2: Welcome Back To Earth

The Mets weren't going to win every game this season. After four straight victories out of the gate, they dropped to 4-1 on the season with a 6-2 loss to the Nationals. The biggest news of the night was that David Wright's right pinkie has a small fracture, but the loss poured a little bit of salt in the wound.

Dillon Gee was charged with four runs, three of which were earned, in 5.1 innings. He had six strikeouts and issued only one walk in his first start of the year, which was atypical given Gee's career rates thus far.

Washington jumped out to an immediate lead when Ian Desmond homered to begin the game. The Mets put runners on the corners in the bottom of the inning but went down one-two-three after that, squandering a perfectly good opportunity to at last tie the game.

The Nationals didn't score again until they plated three runs in the sixth inning. Ryan Zimmerman led off the inning with a double, and one out later, Jayson Werth singled to drive him in. Xavier Nady then singled, and Gee was pulled in favor of Bobby Parnell. Daniel Murphy then made an error that allowed Werth to score, Nady to advance, and Roger Bernadina to reach safely. Wilson Ramos doubled to score Nady, and the Nationals had a four-run lead.

Parnell struck out the next two batters to end the inning, but he gave up another run in the seventh. He walked Zimmerman with one out and gave up a double to Adam LaRoche before Werth singled to score another run. With runners on the corners and one out, Parnell once again struck out the next two batters he faced to escape further damage.

The Mets finally got on the board in the seventh inning as Jason Bay led off with a double. One out later, Justin Turner singled to cut the Mets' deficit to four. Kirk Niuewenhuis drew a walk as a pinch hitter, but Josh Thole and Ike Davis made consecutive outs in the same role to end the Mets' last serious threat of the game.

Miguel Batista allowed a run on two walks and one hit in the eighth inning and was lucky to the inning didn't end up worse than it did. The Mets answered with a run in the bottom of the inning with a Ruben Tejada walk and Ronny Cedeno double. The next three hitters, however, went down in order.

Batista stayed on for a scoreless ninth inning, but the Mets couldn't do anything in the bottom of the inning, either.