Final Score: Nationals 13, Mets 2 — Wheeler bad, Lyon worse

Most Mets fans probably envisioned a much better home debut for Zack Wheeler, but his third big league start went poorly and was just one of the Mets' problems as they were beaten by the Washington Nationals, 13-2.

Wheeler cruised through the first but gave up four runs in a laborious second inning. Much of the contact that was made against him in the inning was particularly hard. He allowed another run in the fifth on a solo home run by Jayson Werth.

The Mets struggled at the plate all day against Gio Gonzalez, and after a couple of good innings from the bullpen, Brandon Lyon poured gas on the fire and surrendered six runs in the eighth inning. The Mets probably weren't coming back from a five-run deficit, but they most assuredly weren't scoring eleven runs.

On the upside, Josh Satin went 2-for-4 (#HAIL), David Wright went 1-for-2 with a walk, and John Buck went 1-for-4 with two RBI, raising his batting average to .208.

Oh, and backup-but-should-be-starting-because-the-abovementioned-John-Buck-is-terrible catcher Anthony Recker pitched the top of the ninth for the Mets, allowing two runs on Ian Desmond's fifteenth home run of the season.

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by MetsFan4Decades; her effort in the game thread embiggens us all.