Alcides Escobar and Lane Thomas both hit home runs as the Washington Nationals snapped their seven-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory over the visiting New York Mets in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday night.
Left-hander Josh Rogers (1-0), called up as the 29th man for the doubleheader and making his Nationals debut, allowed three runs on four hits over 5 2/3 innings to pick up the win. Rogers, who last pitched in the big leagues in 2019 before undergoing Tommy John surgery, walked three and struck out five as Washington (56-79) won for just the eighth time in its last 32 games.
The Mets (68-68), despite blowing a 9-0 lead, won the opener, 11-9, in nine innings on a two-run home run by Francisco Lindor.
Kyle Finnegan, who gave up the game-winning homer to Lindor in the opener, bounced back to strike out Pete Alonso with a runner on second to end the second game and notch his seventh save.
Kevin Pillar homered and Michael Conforto went 2-for-3 with an RBI and run scored for New York which had its six-game winning streak snapped. Tylor Megill (2-4) took the complete-game loss allowing four runs on seven hits over six innings while striking out eight.
The Mets jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Jonathan Villar led off with a walk, advanced to third on Alonso's double off the wall in right-center and scored on a single by Conforto.
Thomas led off the bottom of the first with his second homer of the season, a 402-foot drive to center to tie it, 1-1. Escobar followed with a single and one out later advanced to third on a single by Josh Bell. Carter Kieboom then singled to right to drive in Escobar and give the Nationals a 2-1 lead.
Washington extended its lead to 4-1 in the fifth on Escobar's second home run of the season, a 400-foot drive into the front row of the bleachers in center that drove in Luis Garcia, who opened the inning with a double.
New York cut it to 4-3 in the sixth when Conforto led off with a single and scored one out later on Pillar's 13th homer of the season.
--Field Level Media
NY Mets | Washington | |
Tylor Megill | Player | Josh Rogers |
Loss | W/L | Win |
6.0 | IP | 5.2 |
8 | Strikeouts | 5 |
7 | Hits | 4 |
6.00 | ERA | 4.76 |
NY Mets | Washington | |
Michael Conforto | Player | Alcides Escobar |
2 | Hits | 2 |
1 | RBI | 2 |
0 | HR | 1 |
2 | TB | 5 |
.667 | Avg | .667 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
NY Mets | 4 | 1 | 8 | .160 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
Washington | 7 | 2 | 14 | .318 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |