The Nationals are making the Mets work for their victories again this September.  Last night, thanks to stellar pitching from John Lannan and big hits from the middle of the line up, the Nats beat the Mets 7-2.  With the Mets now only a half game up from the Phillies, the play off race in the NL East could be interesting again this year.

John Lannan was superb last night, trying something new and using his change-up more against the lefties. It worked and Lannan held the Mets to just one hit and one run through seven innings of work. Lannan was helped in the field with great catches from Willie Harris and Lastings Milledge.

The offense sparked also.  With the game tied in the fourth, Milledge scored on a single by Aaron Boone.  Two innings later the Nats added two more on an RBI single from Hernandez.  The Nationals really sealed the deal in the seventh, when both Milledge and Zimmerman reached base with two outs and advanced on a wild pitch.  Then with a 3-2 count, Elijah Dukes smashed a home run over the left field wall to put the Nationals up 7-1. I didn’t see any antics this time as Dukes rounded the bases, so maybe that’s a sign of improvement.  Although, Dukes’ issues in NYC came with Mike Pelfrey pitching for the Mets, those two will meet again tonight in DC…I bet we see fireworks of some kind.

The Mets tried to mount a comeback in the eighth.  Reliever Garrett Mock started the inning and struggled getting the first out.  The Mets scored another run when Reyes singled in Castillo.  Hinckley replaced Mock to face lefty Church, who singled to load the bases.  With David Wright up and the bases loaded, and after the bullpen meltdown the day before, I thought the Mets had a chance to at least make the game close.  I was wrong as Hinckley masterfully got Wright to ground into a double play ending the inning and the threat of a come back.

Still even though the Mets are just a half game up in the NL East, Manny Acta insists the Nationals aren’t trying to spoil the race.

“We are not spoilers,” Acta said. “We are the Washington Nationals. We were trying to snap a five-game losing streak that we had.”

Well with a record of 57-93 and an almost sure chance of losing a hundred games, the teams gotta play for something.  What’s it gonna be Manny, spoilers or Strasburg?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 8:07 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.