“The state of the team is we’re banged up. His rest in the next four days is going to be key to everybody in that clubhouse”. 438 (21 of 48) with 19 RBI against the Mets after becoming a free agent in the offseason and signing with Washington.
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With the All-Star break here, the New York Mets are looking up at the Washington Nationals in the standings of the NL East. Coming into the season, there was a lot of expectations for the Mets after their trip to the World Series last season.
Mets’ pitchers, as a group, headed into the final game of the so-called “first half” with a 3.39 ERA, the third-best ERA in the majors and 79 home runs allowed, the second-fewest in the majors.
Of course, the Mets added Yoenis Cespedes at last year’s non-waiver trade deadline.
As of this juncture, there is no doubt the Nationals are a better team.
During Sunday’s game they tweeted “How do you like them apples?” along with a Murphy vs. the Mets highlight video. “And the players I had – Jeff Kent, Moises Alou, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds”. Cespedes has to recover. He took a hard-luck loss in his most recent start Tuesday, when he carried a shutout into the seventh before giving up a two-run homer to Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton in what turned out to be a 5-2 defeat. Jose Reyes drew a leadoff walk, Curtis Granderson followed with a single and both runners advanced on left fielder Jayson Werth’s throwing error back to the infield.
“All’s I’m trying to make sure is that Jeurys Familia will be on the plane”, Collins said Saturday in reference to his closer, one of four Mets selected to the NL squad.
Jose Reyes hit two home runs for the Mets, including a leadoff shot in the first inning.
“It took me a couple of innings to find my rhythm, and get the mentality that was going to work for me the whole night”, Scherzer said. “It’s part of baseball”. When things looked bleak, we ended up playing in the World Series.
Back to full strength is what the Mets need to overtake the Nationals. And that means going down the stretch without Matt Harvey, who was ineffective before being shut down with a season ending nerve issue to the shoulder that required surgery.
A series that began Thursday with the New York Mets hoping to close the gap on the Washington Nationals in the National League East will end Sunday with the Mets merely hoping to get back to where they were Thursday – and the Nationals striving to return to where they were 12 days ago. The bone spur issue to the elbow is not the problem, and Steven Matz with 7.0 innings Sunday did not seem to be hindered by a bone spur.
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. Gonzalez has lost seven of his last eight decisions, but he is 7-1 in his career at Citi Field, with a win this year.
Scherzer (10-6) gave up three hits and an unearned run in seven innings. But treading water is acceptable for a team that has fielded its Opening Day lineup nine times – and not at all since April 22. But there needs to be more, and again staying healthy is a priority for this team to overtake the Nationals. He said, it was a disappointing end to the homestand losing three-of -four to the division leaders and in between sweeping those four games from the Cubs.
“I’m a big boy, he said,”I swallow it pretty good”. I can handle it. We’ve got to get ready for next weekend. “When we get to Philly, that’s when we’ve really got to get it going”.
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Yes, the second half will be approaching.
