Mets can't get anything going in loss to Nationals
Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor returns to the dugout after he popped out against the Washington Nationals during the sixth inning of an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Tuesday, April 25, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Buck Showalter sounded the alarm before the Mets hosted the 7-14 Nationals on Tuesday night at Citi Field.
“We're facing a club that’s playing really well,” the Mets manager said. “They're pitching well. They're playing well defensively. They're not striking out much. This is going to be a tough three days for us.”
Hold the eye rolls, please. Showalter knew of what he spoke.
The Mets struck out 13 times and were five-hit by the Nationals in a 5-0 defeat before a crowd of 20,507. The Mets (14-10), who lost their third in a row, have been shut out four times already this season.
Starter Josiah Gray threw six innings and struck out nine as the Nationals won their third in four games. Before that, they had lost six of seven.
The oddest play of the night took place with a man on in the sixth when Mets second baseman Luis Guillorme broke the wrong way on a ground ball by Alex Call. The ball went into centerfield for a single to help set up the Nationals’ three-run inning against reliever Jimmy Yacabonis.
“I didn’t see the ball off the bat whatsoever,” Guillorme said. “I had no idea where it was. All I could do was read the swing. It looked like a pull swing . . . . I hate plays like that. I hate not picking up my pitcher.”
The Mets got 4 2/3 innings from fill-in starter Jose Butto, who was called up to make his second start of the season and third of his career.
Keibert Ruiz (3-for-4, walk) touched Butto for a solo homer in the second inning to give Washington a 1-0 lead. Joey Meneses singled in a run in the third to make it 2-0.
Otherwise, Butto (0-1, 2.79 ERA) did well, considering that after a 1-2-3 first he was in constant trouble. Butto allowed four hits, walked six and struck out one.
Trailing just 2-0, the Mets had their best opportunity against Gray (1-4, 2.93 ERA) in the fifth. Brett Baty doubled with one out and moved to third on a two-out infield single by Francisco Alvarez.
Brandon Nimmo walked (Gray’s only walk of the night came on four pitches, suggesting he was avoiding Nimmo) to load the bases for Starling Marte, who struck out on a 3-and-2 cutter.
Washington made it 5-0 in the sixth. Luis Garcia had a two-run double and Meneses added an RBI single.
Reliever Mason Thompson struck out four over the final three innings for his first save.
The Mets were 14-5 against the Nationals in 2022. The teams will meet 13 times this season because of the new balanced schedule.
The Mets were playing in just their seventh home game after spending most of the first month on the road.
The game was also the Mets’ first one at home this season without the giant red and white advertising sleeve patches that owner Steve Cohen and most Mets fans did not fancy.
The Mets debuted a remade patch. It’s smaller. It’s blue and is framed in orange (Mets colors) and features the sponsor’s name — “New York-Presbyterian Hospital” — in white letters.
The much-derided, now defunct patches the Mets debuted at their home opener on April 7 were huge and featured red letters surrounded by a sea of white space.
“They’re Phillies colors,” Cohen had said on April 7 in vowing to replace the patches by the time of the second homestand. Cohen made the deadline.
Dom returns. Former Met Dom Smith received a pregame video tribute and a warm welcome in his return to Citi Field. Smith went 1-for-4 with a walk and is batting .234 with no extra base hits.
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.
