Mets 4, Nationals 3: The Irish Hammer Can Do It All

Daniel Murphy had his best game of the year so far, and he capped it off with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Mets' their fourth straight victory to start the season.

Although he allowed three runs in 5.2 innings of work, Mike Pelfrey had one of his best starts in a long time. Pelfrey struck out eight and only walked one. He generated swinging strikes on 13 of his 104 pitches on the evening.

In the first inning, Pelfrey got into a jam as he allowed three consecutive singles, the last of which scored the Nationals' first run of the game. He got out of the inning, though, by retiring the next two batters he faced. Pelfrey allowed the second and third runs of the game in the third inning on a Ryan Zimmerman double and Jayson Werth "triple" in the third inning. Each hit scored a run, and Lucas Duda and Kirk Nieuwenhuis had a hard time playing the respective hits off the outfield wall.

The Mets came back to tie the game, however, beginning in the bottom of the third inning. Pelfrey led off the inning with a double, and he stood at third base with two outs when David Wright singled to bring him home. An inning later, the Mets tied the game when Captain Kirk homered after Edwin Jackson issued an untimely two-out walk to Josh Thole.

After that, it was a bullpen battle that stayed tied until the bottom of the ninth inning. Mike Baxter walked to begin in the inning, and Ruben Tejada attempted to bunt him over to second base. We don't usually approve of the sacrifice bunt, but it worked out quite well in this instance. The Nationals turned into a Little League team, making an error that allowed Tejada to reach second base and Baxter to advance to third. The Irish Hammer came through with a walk-off single to win the game.