The Washington Nationals touched up the New York Mets' bullpen for three runs in the seventh inning, breaking open a tie game before holding on for a 5-3 victory on Wednesday.
Adam Kennedy, Cristian Guzman and Ryan Zimmerman drove in runs during the seventh-inning rally, which came against Raul Valdes (1-1) and Fernando Nieve, to help the Nationals snap a five-game losing skid.
Rookie Drew Storen (1-0) got the last two outs in the seventh to earn the win in relief of starter Livan Hernandez. Matt Capps allowed a solo homer to Fernando Tatis in the ninth, but still picked up his 15th save.
Hernandez turned in another quality start, allowing two runs on four hits over 6 1/3 innings in the no-decision. His ERA sits at 1.62 on the campaign.
New York took a 1-0 lead on Angel Pagan’s inside-the-park home run in the top of the fourth. The Nationals struck back for a pair in the bottom half on Josh Willingham’s single that scored Guzman and a sacrifice fly by Roger Bernadina.
Washington hit into a rare triple play in the fifth when, with runners at first and second, Pagan charged in to make a shoestring catch on Guzman's sinking liner. The runners kept going as Pagan threw home to catcher Henry Blanco, in case his catch was ruled a trap. Blanco threw to Jose Reyes at second to double off Hernandez and Reyes relayed to first baseman Ike Davis to get Morgan.
NY Mets | Washington | |
R.A. Dickey | Player | Livan Hernandez |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
6.0 | IP | 6.1 |
2 | Strikeouts | 2 |
5 | Hits | 4 |
3.00 | ERA | 2.84 |
NY Mets | Washington | |
Jeff Francoeur | Player | Cristian Guzman |
1 | Hits | 2 |
1 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
1 | TB | 4 |
.500 | Avg | .500 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
NY Mets | 5 | 2 | 11 | .161 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Washington | 8 | 0 | 11 | .296 | 14 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 2 |