Mets blow four-run lead but come back to defeat Nationals
Mets' Pete Alonso gestures on second base after his RBI double against the Washington Nationals during the eighth inning of an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Thursday, April 27, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It’s not often you see a team score five runs in an inning on one hit.
But that’s what the Nationals did against the Mets in the eighth inning on Thursday night when three hit by pitches, an error, a sacrifice fly and a C.J. Abrams grand slam erased a four-run Mets lead and put Washington ahead by a run.
The Mets, though, shook off the disastrous half-inning and scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth to snap a four-game losing streak with a 9-8 victory before 20,726 at Citi Field.
“The players just refused to lose,” manager Buck Showalter said.
Pete Alonso drove in the tying run with a double to right-center. Two innings earlier, Alonso had snapped an 0-for-19 skid with an RBI single.
The piping hot Jeff McNeil drove in the eventual winning run with a triple off the rightfield wall.
“That’s huge,” said McNeil (2-for-5), the reigning NL batting champ who is hitting .415 (17-for-41) over his last 11 games. “We had a nice lead there and then they came back. It shows a lot about this team – kind of get knocked down there and gave up the lead and to be able to come back in the bottom of the eighth, that’s big.”
And it made Brooks Raley – the man who gave up the grand slam – the winning pitcher.
The Mets, who scored one run and struck out 28 times in the previous two games against Washington, banged out 16 hits.
The Mets’ bullpen was without setup man Adam Ottavino, who was placed on the paternity list before the game.
So when Tommy Hunter hit the first two batters of the eighth inning with the Mets up 7-3, Showalter stayed with him for one more batter.
That batter, Stone Garrett, grounded a potential double play ball to Francisco Lindor. But Lindor booted it to load the bases.
Raley came in and got the first out on a sacrifice fly to left. But Raley’s next pitch grazed Victor Robles’ elbow pad to reload the bases.
Abrams unloaded them with his first career grand slam and the Nationals had an 8-7 lead.
“Our guys came in when that inning was over and we relinquished the lead and just said, ‘Let’s go,’” Showalter said. “They were really focused in there instead of saying, ‘It’s just not our night.’ That’s never been the mentality of these guys. Really proud of them. It was fun to watch.”
After two days of offensive futility, the Mets got hits of every shape and size. Brett Baty homered as part of his first three-hit game and Lindor drove in three runs.
With the Mets leading 1-0 on a Mark Canha sacrifice fly, Alex Call homered off Joey Lucchesi in the third to tie the game at 1.
Baty put the Mets back on top with his first home run of the season, a 400-foot drive to right-center with two outs in the fourth.
Francisco Alvarez and Brandon Nimmo followed with singles, Marte walked and Lindor grounded a two-run single inside first base for a 4-1 Mets lead.
Alvarez left the game after eight innings. He was hit in the left side of the helmet with a back swing in the fifth. Showalter said “everything checked out fine” and the club would see how Alvarez feels on Friday.
Lucchesi, who threw seven shutout innings in San Fransisco on Friday in his emotional return from Tommy John surgery, was charged with three runs in 5 1/3 innings and left leading 4-3.
With first-place Atlanta coming to town on Friday, the Mets were glad to snap their longest losing streak in the Showalter era.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing tomorrow,” Showalter said. “It matters that it’s a ‘W’.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
