Mets beat Nationals to keep NL East hopes alive

For now, the Mets’ hopes of taking pictures the 2022 NL East name are nonetheless alive. But they’re on existence fortify.

The Mets defeated the Washington Nationals 4-2 within the first sport of a doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon at Citi Field, transferring to inside of one sport of the Atlanta Braves within the department standings. The Braves misplaced to the Miami Marlins in Game 1 in their three-game collection at loanDepot Park on Monday evening and the second one sport in their ultimate common season collection began at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

The protecting World Series champs want just one win or one Mets loss to clinch the department and obtain a bye into the NLDS.

“Stay tuned,” supervisor Buck Showalter stated. “We’ve got to see how the circumstances change in the next hour or two. We’ll see.”

Brandon Nimmo went 3-for-5 with a two-run double and a solo house run to assist lead the Mets (99-61) over the Nationals (55-105). Jeff McNeil persevered his quest for the National League batting name going 2-for-3 with a stroll and a run scored. He now leads all MLB hitters with a .328 reasonable. Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman is 3 issues in the back of him and has a possibility to meet up with two video games towards the Colorado Rockies and their league-worst pitching body of workers.

Carlos Carrasco pitched smartly, however he wasn’t precisely dominant in his ultimate audition for a postseason roster spot. He went 4 innings and confronted two batters within the 5th, permitting a two-run homer to Washington’s No. 9 hitter, catcher Riley Adams.

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“I don’t know how that guy hit that ball right there,” Carrasco stated. “The wind was blowing out like crazy today. But we won the game. That’s what we were looking for.”

He went 4 innings (plus two batters), permitting two runs on 5 hits, putting out 3 and strolling one.

“Carlos wasn’t happy with his last outing or two so I know tonight meant a lot to him,” Showalter stated.

Carrasco may have long gone deeper into the sport however knew he was once going to be rather restricted. With a rested bullpen coming off of a rainout Monday, the Mets have been conservative together with his use. Drew Smith, David Peterson, Adam Ottavino (6-3) and Edwin Diaz blanked the Nats the remainder of the way in which. Diaz recorded his thirty second save of the season.

“He gave us what he had,” Showalter stated. “In a little different situation, we probably would have let him continue but we had a lot of people available and they did the job for us.”

Nimmo’s giant hit got here in the second one inning when he hit a two-run double off of Cory Abbott (0-5) with two outs to ranking Mark Canha and Tomas Nido. McNeil scored on a sacrifice fly within the 3rd and Nimmo’s solo house run got here within the fourth, additionally off of Abbott in his ultimate inning of labor.

It was once a a lot better offensive appearing for a group that struggled to ranking runs all weekend in Atlanta, however the situational hitting nonetheless leaves one thing to be desired. The Mets stranded 9 runners. However, they have been pressured to combat wind, rain and a particularly rainy box all the way through and performed superb protection to keep the lead intact.