Mets vs. Nationals recap: Even Steven

It’s odd to watch the Mets and Nationals play what essentially amount to spring training games in late August, but here we are. With Washington leading the division by a mile and the Mets nowhere near contention, the teams wrapped up a four-game series that might have had the league and ESPN, the network the aired the nightcap, salivating when the season was merely on paper a few months ago.

The sequence of events in this one was relatively simple. The Mets fell behind by two, rallied in the sixth to take the lead, and blew that lead in the bottom of that inning. They gave up one more run after that and proceeded to plate one of their own in the ninth but stranded the would-be tying run on third base when the game ended.

As for individual performances, which are more of a reason to watch right now than the outcome of any particular game for the team:

• Jose Reyes went 3-for-5 with a run batted in and a run scored, one of his better games of a bad season.
• Juan Lagares went 2-for-5 and, like Reyes, drove in and scored one run.
• Brandon Nimmo went 2-for-4 and hit a two-run home run in the aforementioned sixth-inning rally.
• Seth Lugo struck out five and didn’t walk anyone in his start, but he went three-and-two-thirds innings and gave up two runs on four hits.
• Hansel Robles is still, indeed, Hansel Robles.

The Mets are off on Monday night, but they’ll head to Cincinnati and begin a three-game series against their fellow non-contenders on Tuesday night with Chris Flexen, Rafael Montero, and Jacob deGrom set to make the starts in those three games.

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
Federal Baseball

Box scores

ESPN
MLB

Win Probability Added

FanGraphs

What’s WPA?

Big winners: Brandon Nimmo, +17.2% WPA
Big losers: Hansel Robles, -31.5% WPA, Wilmer Flores, -12.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brandon Nimmo hits a two-run home run in the sixth, +26.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Juan Lagares flies out to left with runners on first and third to end the game in the ninth, -16.4% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -32.0% WPA
Total batter WPA: -18.0% WPA
GWRBI!: Adam Lind