Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor go yard in Mets' 7-5 win over Nationals
The Mets took the first game of a three-game series against the Nationals on Tuesday, beating Washington 7-5.
Here are the takeaways...
-After facing the Nationals in his last start and shutting them out for seven innings, it was interesting to see if Jose Quintana could keep his streak of good outings alive. Well, he passed with flying colors.
Not only did Quintana, once again, keep Washington off the board, he was even better than he was his last time out. The veteran left-hander went seven scoreless innings for a second consecutive start, allowing just one hit, one walk and one hit-by-pitch while striking out five on 103 pitches (60 strikes). He retired the last 13 batters he faced and got his fourth win of the season.
-This latest start by Quintana is more proof that there is still plenty left in the 35-year-old’s tank. In fact, in his last five starts, Quintana owns a 0.89 ERA across 30.1 innings, which has lowered his season ERA from 5.29 to 3.91.
-It has also become clear that Quintana loves throwing to Francisco Alvarez, which could explain his earlier struggles while Alvarez was on the IL.
-With the way Quintana was throwing the ball the Mets didn’t need much on offense, but they got it in the second inning. The inning began with Jake Irvin retiring the first two he faced, but a walk to Jeff McNeil and a single by Harrison Bader put two on for Francisco Lindor, who already led off the game with a single. Lindor took it to Irvin once more, singling in the Mets’ first run – already more than they scored against Irvin in their last matchup on July 4.
New York dropped the hammer down two pitches later when Brandon Nimmo hit an opposite-field three-run blast to give the Mets a 4-0 lead. The home run was Nimmo’s 15th of the season and gave him a team-leading 58 RBI. He finished 1-for-5.
-Irvin regained his composure and settled down after that as New York didn’t score again until the sixth inning. With Irvin still in the game, the inning began much like the second with the right-hander retiring the first two batters of the frame before Bader singled to keep the inning alive. Bader finished 3-for-4 in the No. 9 hole.
Lindor continued to torment Irvin and followed with a two-run jack – his third hit of the night – to make it 6-0. The home run was Lindor’s 16th of the year as the Mets now have three of the top seven players in the NL East-home run leaderboard between Pete Alonso (18), Lindor (16) and Nimmo (15).
-New York’s bullpen rarely makes it easy and with a 7-2 lead in the ninth inning, Reed Garrett came in and was no different. After a leadoff double, Garrett served up a two-run bomb to Keibert Ruiz, which cut the Mets’ lead to three runs with still nobody out in the inning. The right-hander went on to get the next two outs, but walked Jacob Young to keep the game going and forced manager Carlos Mendoza to go to his closer, Edwin Diaz, for the final out in a game New York would’ve loved Diaz to stay away from.
Diaz ultimately got the final out (not before a wild pitch allowed Young to score from second base), but on a day David Stearns and the Mets traded for reliever Phil Maton, it was a reminder that that probably won’t be enough.
Game MVP: Jose Quintana
Lindor and Nimmo are going to do what they do, but Quintana's performance bodes well for a Mets rotation that has been searching for guys to step up as of late.
Highlights
What's next
The Mets and Nationals continue their three-game series on Wednesday night with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 p.m.
RHP Luis Severino (5-3, 3.83 ERA) goes for New York while Washington counters with LHP Patrick Corbin (1-8, 5.49 ERA).
