Mets trounce Nationals with literally a million home runs

After a series win against Seattle, the Mets headed to Washington for a quick two game series. The Mets had José Quintana on the mound to start the game, a good sign for their chance at winning. The Mets offense had been looking a little more active as of late, and the game would be the first time all four “Baby Mets” would be in the lineup to start a game. So hopefully, they’d be able to pick up another win.

To start the game, the Mets took a bit of batting practice off a tee–wait, I’m hearing that they were actually getting pitched to by Patrick Corbin. Two straight singles from Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor put the Mets in a good spot, and a Jeff McNeil sacrifice bunt moved them to scoring position. Pete Alonso hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Nimmo, move Lindor to third, and give the Mets two outs. Mark Vientos got hit by a pitch on the helmet, which was decided after a challenge, and with two runners on Francisco Alvarez broke his long home run drought with a three run blast, putting the Mets up four runs before the end of the first. Baty flew out, but the Mets had already made a statement.

In the bottom of the inning, the Nationals attempted to strike back. Jacob Young, a player this writer had never heard of before seeing today’s lineup, hit a double, and Joey Meneses drove him in for the Nationals first run. But three consecutive outs after that stranded Meneses and kept the Nationals at a solitary run, three back of the Mets.

The second inning was quiet, with a Travis Blankenhorn single being the only baserunner in either half of the inning. In the top of the third, Lindor hit his 26th home run of the year, helping in his quest to join the 30-30 club. After a couple of outs, Vientos hit a triple, and Alvarez walked, then stole his first base in the major leagues. Baty singled, and drove in both runners, to put the Mets total up to seven runs. Other than a Keibert Ruiz single, the Nationals weren’t able to do anything in the bottom of the innings.

In the top of the fourth, the Mets added on another run courtesy of a Nimmo solo home run, the eighth Met run of the game. Bottom of the fourth, no movement from the Nationals. In the fifth, after the Nationals pulled Corbin in favor of Andres Machado, Pete Alonso hit his 42nd home run of the year, putting the Mets total up to nine runs. In the bottom of the inning, the only thing the Nationals could muster was a walk, and the base runner was immediately erased in an unassisted double play by Alonso.

Both teams went down in order in both the sixth and seventh innings. But before we proceed, a quick diversion. In the top of the sixth, Steve Gelbs went in search of a dog to interview on air. And the dog he landed on, well that just so happened to be Blue, the dog of beloved Amazin’ Avenue writers Allison McCague and Michael Drago. While he wasn’t the best at trivia, he was a truly good boy for the world to see.

In the top of the eight the Mets scored another run by way of an Alvarez double and Mauricio driving him in. In the bottom of the inning the Mets brought in Sam Coonrod in relief, but his performance could be called anything but. A walk and two singles drove in the Nationals second run. He hit Meneses with a pitch to load the bases, then another walk drove in the Nationals third run. The Mets called on Sean Reid-Foley to try and stop the bleeding. He finally got the first out, but it was a sacrifice fly that drove in the Nationals fourth run and an Alvarez error allowed the other two runners to advance. He struck out the next batter but a two-out single drove in the Nationals fifth run. He got the last out, ending the torture but after the Nationals were allowed to slash the lead in half.

In the ninth, Nimmo hit another home run to help create a wider margin for the Mets. Three consecutive outs ended the inning for the Mets while also leaving three outs between the Mets and a win. The Mets brought in Drew Smith to try and get those three outs. He got two outs, walked Young, and then got Meneses to ground out to Baty to end the game. It may not have been pretty, but at least it was over.

The Mets picked up another win. At this point, it’s almost certainly not leading anywhere, but for fans and players alike a win is a welcome thing. They have one more game before they head to Minnesota to face the Twins, who are currently leading their very bad division. WHere they go from here, who knows, but it’s never a bad night to watch them score double digit runs.

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Francisco Alvarez, +22.0% WPA
Big Mets loser: Sam Coonrod, -3.4% WPA
Mets pitchers: +6.8% WPA
Mets hitters: +43.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Francisco Alvarez’s first inning three run home run, +21.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Joey Meneses’ RBI single in the first inning, -5.9% WPA