After Sunday, the Mets and Nationals have just six head-to-head games remaining, all in September.
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Jose Reyes hit two home runs for the Mets, including a leadoff shot in the first inning.
Taking a break from facing Daniel Murphy was bound to help, too.
Murphy homered for the sixth time this year against his former teammates and drove in four runs, and the Washington Nationals turned four of Logan Verrett’s five walks into runs in a 6-1 win over NY 6-1 Saturday night.
NL batting leader Daniel Murphy has homered six times against the Mets this season – previous year while playing for the Mets, he had a total of five home runs at the break.
The respite is welcome to just about everyone on the Mets except Jose Reyes.
“It’s the age-old story”, Collins said. He will rest an injury that seems to him to be like the one he suffered in spring training past year and that lasted about five days. “We end up playing in the World Series”, he said. “We’ve got to get ready for next weekend, and when we get into Philadelphia, that’s when we’ve got to really get it going on all cylinders and not look back”.
Murphy has the most homers in a single season by a player against the Mets since Chase Utley also had seven in 2009.
“I don’t have any answer”, he said. Overall, he is 22 for 52 (.423) with 21 RBIs vs. his old club. Both will attend Tuesday’s game.
The Nationals tied a franchise record with their 54th win before the All-Star break, matching the 1994 Montreal Expos. Murphy drew two standing ovations and got a video tribute when he returned for the first time in mid-May. All three of Werth’s steals this year have taken third base.
A two-out single by Juan Lagares on Gonzalez’s 108th pitch of the game ended his outing.
Roark responded by retiring all seven batters he faced over 2 1/3 scoreless innings, bridging the gap to the back end of the Nationals bullpen.
Addison Reed got the last out of the eighth and retired the side in the ninth to keep it close, but Nats’ closer Jonathan Papelbon came on in the bottom of the ninth and earned his 19th save.
Steven Matz (7-5) fell to 0-4 in his last eight starts.
A leadoff walk to Scherzer, a ground-ball triple by Ben Revere and Murphy’s single pushed the lead to 3-1 in the third.
If you play the odds game, and figure that Zack Wheeler will eventually return, Yoenis Cespedes and the bone spur twins will get some time off to rest, and a deal could be made at some point before the deadline, all of a sudden the situation changes drastically.
The Mets are now 4-9 against the Nationals this season, with six of those losses coming in the last two weeks. He managed to make at least one new fan, however after chasing down a popup that landed in foul territory, he pointed to a young person in the stands and tossed the souvenir that way. Collins said it was unlikely the slugger would’ve been able to pinch-hit.
Fire Terry Collins; Wilmer Flores should be in the lineup everyday; Nobody can hit; Alejandro De Aza is a bum. The pitcher stayed in and got Travis d’Arnaud on a liner to left. In 116 games last season with Toronto and Colorado, Reyes hit seven home runs. Washington is second in wins in the National League to the San Francisco Giants.
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetDSI, the Mets are -133 money line favorites to beat the Nationals this afternoon at home, while the Nationals have +123 odds to pull off the upset.
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Nationals: Open a nine-game homestand next Friday, starting with Pittsburgh.
