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Jeff McNeil walks off Nationals as Mets steal 5-4 win in extra innings

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Jeff McNeil walks off Nationals as Mets steal 5-4 win in extra innings

Jeff McNeil needed just one pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning to drive in the winning run as the Mets came from behind to beat the Washington Nationals, 5-4, on Tuesday night at Citi Field.

McNeil jumped on a 94 mph fastball from Washington rookie reliever Cole Henry and hit it off the end of his bat (just 68.7 mph exit velocity), but the ball found the grass in right field and Luisangel Acuña, in as a pinch-runner, easily scampered home to end the game, which New York once trailed 3-0.

The Mets are now 25-7 at home this season, the best home start in franchise history and have MLB’s best home winning percentage as they have won four straight in Flushing and eight of their last nine. New York improved to 43-24 on the year.

Here are the takeaways…

– With the Mets down two with two outs in the eighth, Jose A. Ferrer looked to be cruising to a clean inning and had Starling Marte down in the count 0-2. But Marte worked a seven-pitch walk. Juan Soto, down 0-2 to the Nats’ lefty, hit a sharp liner to right that Robert Hassell III missed with a dive and had the ball bounce past him, to score Marte and put Soto at second.

Washington then went to closer Kyle Finnegan to face Pete Alonso, who was 0-for-3 to that point. But the Mets’ slugger got an 0-1 splitter that hung just enough, and he smashed it off the wall in the left field corner to tie the game. Alonso beat the throw to second, but came off the bag and was tagged out to end the inning, but the damage was done.

– The Mets were only in a position to erase the two-run deficit late because the bullpen got out of some tight spots. Jose Butto was the first man out of the Mets’ bullpen and stranded an inherited runner with a strikeout and groundout to short before getting the first out of the seventh. Lefty José Castillo entered and promptly walked and hit the first two batters he faced. Against James Wood, a third straight lefty, Castillo induced an inning-ending 6-3 twin killing.

Castillo stayed on for the eighth and got a strikeout but allowed a double to the right-center gap to pinch-hitter Andrés Chaparro, in his first at-bat of the season, and walked Luis Garcia Jr. The lefty allowed three of the five lefties he faced to reach. But Justin Garza entered with runners on first and second for his Mets’ debut and got Alex Call looking at some 98 mph heat and Hassell III swinging at a cutter.

Edwin Diaz got the top half of the ninth in the tie game and struck out two on some nasty offerings, needing just 12 pitches to get the job done. Reed Garrett, pitching on four days’ rest, got a grounder to first to push the ghost runner to third to start the tenth. But ge stuck out Nathaniel Lowe swinging at a splitter in the dirt and got Chaparro on a soft fly to left to strand the runner.

– Griffin Canning got in trouble with hangers in the first inning: CJ Abrams rocketed a knee-high changeup off the wall in right for a double before Lowe uncorked a hanging slider for a 415-foot home run to right to put the Mets behind early.

Canning allowed the leadoff man to reach in the second with a single to center off his hands and a two-out, 0-2 single to center off the end of the bat to give Washington another scoring chance. Abrams stung the Mets’ starter again this time with an RBI double on a bouncer just over the first-base bag, but the Nationals ran themselves out of the inning. After the ball bounced off the half wall, Soto reached the ball with José Tena still two steps short of third base. Third base coach Ricky Gutierrez waved Tena home, but Soto’s one-bounce throw from shallow right got him at the plate by 10 feet.

The Mets’ starter allowed another leadoff single to start the third, but he retired the next seven batters he faced, including an eight-pitch 1-2-3 fourth. But Abrams ended that streak when he snuck an opposite-field homer over the left-field wall on a down-and-away fastball.

Canning ended the fifth with his 12th career pickoff and first with the Mets, nailing Wood at first. But his night came to an end with a one-out walk in the sixth. His final line: 5.1 innings, four runs on seven hits, two walks, and four strikeouts, throwing 87 pitches (53 strikes). Canning did keep a streak alive: Mets starters have now allowed four or fewer runs in 66 of 67 starts.

– Brandon Nimmo singled through the right side of the infield to start the bottom of the second and, with two outs, stole second base to give McNeil a RBI chance off MacKenzie Gore, a pitcher he likes hitting against. McNeil made it eight hits in 11 at-bats (all singles) with a bloop to right that just found the outfield grass to score Nimmo from second.

The rest of the Mets weren’t so successful against Gore, who entered the game leading the NL with 108 strikeouts, as Soto, Luis Torrens, Tyrone Taylor, Ronny Mauricio, and Marte were all strikeout victims early. 

But Soto got revenge on Gore and his former team, driving a 2-2 slider up in the zone 373 feet the opposite way for a solo homer, his 12th on the season. Taylor also got some revenge, lacing a high fastball down the left-field line for a two-out double in the fourth, but this time McNeil flied out to left to strand the runner.

After six innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts, the Nats lifted Gore, who had thrown just 89 pitches, and the Mets were glad to see the back of him.

– In Aug. 2022, the Nationals traded Soto to the Padres. In Tuesday’s game, six of the eight players in the deal appeared in the game as Washington started four of the five players they received (Abrams, Wood, Gore, and Hassell III) and had Josh Bell, who went to San Diego in the deal, but is back with Washington. The only players not to appear were one-time Met Luke Voit and Jarlin Susana, the No. 2 prospect in the Nats’ organization.

Game MVP: Jeff McNeil

McNeil has now reached base safely in each of the last 13 games and is batting .319 (15-for-47) with six runs, four doubles, four home runs, nine RBI, four walks, and a steal.

Highlights

What’s next

The Mets and Nats renew their hostilities on Wednesday night with first pitch set for 7:05 p.m. on SNY.

Left-hander David Peterson (2.80 ERA, 1.259 WHIP in 70.2 innings) makes his 13th start of the season. He will look to outduel Washington right-hander Jake Irvin (4.02 ERA, 1.226 WHIP in 78.1 innings), making his 14th start of the campaign.



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