The Mets offense and the answer to the nation’s debt crisis had something in common tonight. They were both absent in the nation’s capital.
The Amazins had their five-game winning streak snapped as Yunesky Maya and three members of the Nationals bullpen combined to shutout the Mets 3-0.
Jason Werth provided the only offense in the entire game, when he smashed an R.A Dickey knuckleball onto the grass beyond the center field wall with two runners on. Dickey pitched brilliantly after that first inning hiccup en route to his 12th quality start of 2011, but he received no run support and took his 9th loss of the year.
The Mets bats just did not look ready for Maya throughout the entire evening. They probably were preparing to face Jason Marquis, who was originally scheduled to start for the Nats before he was traded to the Diamondbacks.
Despite not knowing he would start tonight, Maya pitched 5.1 stellar innings. He got ahead of almost every Met he faced and kept them off balance throughout. He did not register any strikeouts, but judging by the lazy fly outs and weak groundouts, the Mets just could not hit their strides against him.
The Mets best chance against Maya came in the fifth, when Jose Reyes came to hit as the tying run with two outs. Reyes exploded on the first pitch he saw, but got under it a little too much and it ended up just a scary fly out to Werth.
The Mets had another golden opportunity in the ninth against Nationals closer Drew Storen. David Wright and Jason Bay reached on a walk and a single with one out. Lucas Duda walked to the plate as a tying run, and he took a hack worthy of his third homerun of the season. But he broke his bat and like Reyes, flied out to right.
But the Mets were not quite out of it yet. Their last at-bat was very dramatic. They loaded the bases for pinch-hitter Willie Harris, who represented the go-ahead run against his old team. The fire-balling Storen opted for his slider almost exclusively in the at-bat, and on a 1-2 count got Harris tied up, and caught him looking at a strike-three call to end the game.
The Mets had several streaks snapped tonight. Along with their winning streak, Justin Turner’s 0 for 4 snapped his 10-game hitting streak. Also the Braves defeated the Marlins 5-1, meaning the Mets drop to 8.5 games behind Atlanta. The Mets will send Jon Niese to the mound tomorrow afternoon in the series finale.
Mets Notes:
Newsday.com is reporting that Johan Santana could be three weeks away from pitching for the Mets this season. He still is very early in his rehab and has another start to make in Single-A before even thinking about moving up. But the Mets have set August 21 and August 26 as possible return days.
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