The Washington Nationals jumped on Mets ace Johan Santana and never looked back, winning 5-2 Sunday afternoon at Citi Field. LF Josh Willingham’s 1st inning grand slam was the big blow while ex- Met Livan Hernandez had his former club off balance all afternoon, allowing only 5 hits over 7 innings. Santana struggled with his control early(walking 2 of the first four) but rallied to pitch 5 innings. The loss drops the Mets to 2-4 and they now go on the road for 3 games apiece versus two of the better NL clubs in the Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals.
UNCLUTCH: NY entered the game hitting .205 with runners in scoring position and went 1 for 9 Sunday. CF Gary Matthews Jr. batted 4 times with runners in scoring position and 2 outs yet came up empty.(0 for 4)
JAKE JACK: 1B Mike Jacobs ended his season long 1 for 13 slump with a tremendous two run shot into the 2nd deck in Rightfield. Just crushed the ball and rewarded Manager Jerry Manuel for his loyalty.
BAD BAY: I love the guy and know the Mets made the right move signing him but as Bill Parcells says ” You are what you record says you are”… new Mets LF Jason Bay has zero home runs and rbi
KRAZY K-ROD: Love this guys fire and it was on display again Sunday. He hit Nationals OF(and Mets killer) Willie Harris with a pitch in the 9th and Harris said something walking to First base. Rodriquez then moved towards him and both benches emptied.
BIG BULLPEN: Sunday saw another great outing from the relief corps, putting the pens shutout streak at 12 2/3 innings. LH Raul Valdez threw 2 innings in his ML debut while RH Ryota Igarashi continued his strong opening week with a clean inning.
EVIL LIVO: The Popular Hernandez had the Mets looking bad all day and needed only 88 pitches to throw 7 innings. He walked 3 and K-ed 1 while getting first pitch strikes on 12 of 28 NY hitters.
SLAM SCORE: Willingham’s slam was originally called a triple(He was thrown out at the plate) but the umpires got the call correct after a video review.
GAME NOTES: RF Jeff Francoeur, the only Met regular hitting, had 2 hits. He is now hitting .476 thru the 1st week of the season… 3B David Wright drew 2 walks and stole a base… Santana and SS Jose Reyes had doubles…. RH RP Sean Green was placed on the DL to make room for Valdes on the roster
NEXT GAME:
Team is off Monday
Start 3 game series vs the Rockies Tuesday at Coors Field
8:40 pm
Rockies LHP Greg Smith(0-0,9.00) vs Mets RH John Maine(0-0,7.20)
