Last night in Washington, David Wright came through with the game-winning hit for the second time in three days. This time, he hit a three-run home run in the third inning. The Mets were down 1-0 at the time, but after Curtis Granderson was hit by a pitch and Juan Lagares singled, Wright took Gio Gonzalez just over the fence and above Jayson Werth’s head in left field for his fifth home run of the year.
The Mets weren’t done in that inning, either. Yoenis Cespedes and Neil Walker singled, and they came around to score on an Asdrubal Cabrera single and an Eric Campbell sac fly, respectively. That 5-1 lead was more than enough for Bartolo Colon, who was in good form in this start.
That was a pleasant sight, as Colon was in decidedly poor form in his past couple of starts. Last night, he struck out two, walked two, and allowed just one run in seven innings, and he now has a 3.44 ERA through ten starts. That’s really not bad for a guy who turns 43 years old today and throws fastballs almost exclusively.
In the fifth, with Gonzalez still pitching for the Nationals, Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo home run, and Neil Walker followed up with a solo home run of his own. That was Walker’s fourth home run as a right-handed hitter this year and his eleventh overall.
After the way the Mets’ last two games against the Nationals had gone, it was very nice to see them win an easy game to open this series, and they did it against a pitcher who entered the game with a 1.86 ERA on the season.
SB Nation GameThreads
* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* Federal Baseball GameThread
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big winners: David Wright, +18.2% WPA, Juan Lagares, +12.3% WPA
Big losers: none
Teh aw3s0mest play: David Wright’s three-run home run in the third, +24.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ryan Zimmerman’s run-scoring single in the first, -9.7% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +10.2% WPA
Total batter WPA: +39.8% WPA
GWRBI!: David Wright