It sounds like a little rivalry is brewing between the Mets and Nationals. With both teams fielding former players, it seems only natural.  After the Nationals win on Monday, now-former Mets pitcher Figueroa was rattled by the Nats cheering on their teammates in the third inning, and made some questionable comments to the media.  The Mets responded to the Nats last night when starter John Maine’s first pitch hit Felipe Lopez.  After the game, Maine said the ball slipped and that it was probably a little too inside.  It was definitely a message to the Nats that the Mets didn’t appreciate their cheers from the night before. Felipe was noticeably angry, but took first base without a retaliation. The Nationals couldn’t answer back with a victory though, they lost 6-3.  It will be interesting to see how the rest of this series in NY plays out. 
 
Nats starter John Lannan was nowhere near as lights out as he was for his last outing at Shea in April.  Lannan pitched six innings, giving up four runs on 12 hits.  He was able to work himself out of jams in a couple innings, but really struggled with the Mets left handers, most noticeably Ryan Church. Church seemed to dominate Lannan last night. He hit a solo home run in the 3rd inning to tie the game, and got a two run double after Kearns misjudged a fly ball.  Church is quickly becoming a favorite for the Mets.  He leads the team in home runs and is second behind David Wright in RBI’s.  Funny what playing everyday does for him — if only he had been given that shot while with the Nationals. (We got Wily Mo Pena instead?!) Speaking of former Nats, Brian Schneider also had a good night; he had three hits and an RBI. 
 
Shaky outfield defense was a problem again last night.  Both Milledge and Kearns made costly mistakes.  Kearns who is having serious offensive issues this season (hitting just .201) went 1-4 last night and left three more runners on base.  Austin’s defense and work ethic are apparently good enough to excuse his lack of hitting. However, last night he misjudged a routine fly ball from Ryan Church, that allowed two runs to score.  The reality is Kearns has never played up to his “potential” while in DC, for whatever reason.  Jim Bowden recently said that a trade involving Kearns wouldn’t be unlikely.  It’s clear things aren’t working for him this year, a trade might be better for both him and the team. 
 
Lastings Milledge made two more fielding errors last night. His costly error in the eighth allowed Marlon Anderson to advance to third base.  Anderson eventually scored on Church’s sac fly.  Lastings did have a great catch up against the wall earlier in the game, but it’s almost always a gamble with  him catching balls in center-field.  I’m never completely confident that he will make the play.  I think it is definitely time for an outfield shake up. Bring up the young guys and see what a little healthy competition does for the current starters. 
 
Eighth inning guy Luis Ayala struggled a bit again last night.  He faced seven batters and gave up two hits including a costly RBI single to Jose Reyes.  I thought a day off would help him regain focus and come back strong.  Wonder what’s going on with our set up man?
 
Ryan Zimmerman’s two run homer in the third inning off Maine was his sixth of the season, and also the highlight of the Nats offense last night.  It’s good to see Zim climbing out of his early season slump.
 
Tim Redding (4-3) faces the Mets recent call up Claudio Vargas tonight at Shea.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 9:21 am and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.