The Mets were extra unlucky Sunday afternoon at Citi Field, seeing Washington Nationals center fielder Jacob Young rob both Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez of home runs. But they did themselves little favors in a 3-2 loss.
The Nats, the last-place team in the NL East, took the series, 2-1. The lead over the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Wild Card standings is down to a mere 0.5 games. Should the Reds finish off the Chicago Cubs for a win on Sunday, they’ll overtake the Mets (80-76) in the standings by virtue of owning the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The piggyback start with left-hander Sean Manaea and righty Clay Holmes was effective, though not quite as effective as the last time out. The Nats (64-92) took a 3-0 lead in the second inning, capitalizing on a wild throw by shortstop Francisco Lindor.
With one out and one on, Manaea (2-4) had Jorge Alfaro on an 0-2 count before the catcher lined a sweeper to left field. Playing it off the wall, Brandon Nimmo hit the cutoff man, Lindor, but his throw to second to get the lead runner, Daylen Lile, went well past second baseman Jeff McNeil. Lile scored, and the Mets gave Washington an extra out to work with.
Nasim Nuñez, a Bronx native, made it count when he took Manaea deep for a two-run homer two batters later.
Holmes replaced Manaea in the fourth after a ball took a hop on Pete Alonso for yet another error. With three straight right-handers and the switch-hitting Nuñez coming up in the order, they made the decision to go to a right-hander. Holmes tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings to allow the Mets a chance to come back.
They scored once in the third inning on a play that took Lile out of the game with a knee contusion, but Cedric Mullins made a costly decision to not to go to second base once he saw Lile down on the field in pain. Lindor was at home plate yelling for him to go to second, but the center fielder appeared to think the play was dead. Interim manager Miguel Cairo was out of the Washington bullpen with the trainer calling for time to check on his injured player.
The umpire sent him to first, saying he hadn’t reached second by the time the ball was out of Lile’s glove. He was then doubled off when Lindor hit a line drive right to first baseman Josh Bell.
Juan Soto hit a double off right-hander Jake Irvin (9-13) to keep the inning going and made it to third on a balk, but the Mets stranded him there.
Lindor hit his 28th homer of the season to lead off the sixth, pulling the Mets to within one. They put two on with only one out, prompting the Nationals to relieve Irvin with left-hander Mitchell Parker. He struck out McNeil and Mark Vientos. Home plate umpire John Tumpane ejected Vientos for slamming his bat on home plate.
Baty nearly homered in the sixth when his fly ball to center field was tracked down at the wall by Young. The ball popped out of his glove, yet Young somehow managed to kick it back up to himself without letting it touch the ground, catching it for the out. The circus catch rendered a sellout crowd speechless.
The crowd came back to life in the bottom of the eighth when Alonso took what could be his final at-bat at Citi Field. The Polar Bear hit a two-out single off Parker and reached second on an error. Luisangel Acuña pinch-ran for him, and the fans saluted a homegrown fan-favorite as he jogged off the field.
