R.A. Dickey and Gio Gonzalez battled each other to a stalemate early on before the inevitable debacle made an early appearance. Scott Hairston reached on an error in the bottom of the second and came around to score on a two-out single from Ronny Cedeno, marking the Mets' first lead of this homestand. (Not a typo.) The Nats tied things up on a two-out double from Danny Espinosa in the top of the fourth. But pitchers' duel disintegrated in the top of the sixth when Dickey allowed a two-out two-run homer to Adam LaRoche, and three more two-out hits and some awful outfield play from Jason Bay plated two more runs.
The Mets could manage nothing against Gonzalez the rest of the evening. They scratched against the bullpen with yet another pinch hit homer from Jordany Valdespin in the eighth, his fifth of the year (a new franchise record), but that was as close as things would get. R.A. Dickey suffered his first loss since forever, and the Mets are now on the verge of suffering a winless six-game homestand. Hopefully they can get up bright an early so Jeremy Hefner can face off against Stephen Strasburg! Or, alternatively, maybe some sort of zoning violation will shutdown CItiField.
Full recap to come.
Game Thread Roll Call
Nice job by MetsFan4Decades; your effort in the game thread embiggens us all.
| Num | Name | # of Posts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MetsFan4Decades | 85 |
| 2 | foreverknyte | 70 |
| 3 | fxcarden | 67 |
| 4 | Prustyballs94 | 63 |
| 5 | The Nameless One | 61 |
| 6 | TWilliAM | 55 |
| 7 | Joveoak | 55 |
| 8 | miglaugh | 53 |
| 9 | santana9237 | 52 |
| 10 | robotoverlord | 40 |