Mets lose on a walk-off as Parnell blows the save

The New York Mets lost to the Washington Nationals on Saturday night by a score of 8-7. Dillon Gee made the start and did not have a very good outing. The bullpen did a good job with three scoreless innings and getting the ball to Parnell but then he blew the save. Parnell is being groomed as the closer and it is a learning experience for him right now. The offense was good led by Angel Pagan and Justin Turner.
Gee pitched five innings giving up six runs on eight hits. He walked one and struck out six. Pedro Beato pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up two hits, Daniel Herrera pitched to two batters and retired them both and Manny Acosta pitched two scoreless innings walking one and striking out five. Parnell pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up two hits and two runs with two walks, it was his third blown save of the season and his record is 3-5 on the season.

Jose Reyes had a hit, Turner had two hits and Lucas Duda had an RBI. David Wright had a hit and a walk, Pagan had two hits and two RBI and Jason Bay had a hit and two RBI. Nick Evans had a hit and two RBI, Ronny Paulino had a hit and Willie Harris had a walk. Wright had a double, Evans and Bay each had a homerun. The Mets were 3-7 with runners in scoring position and they left four men on base. Pagan had a stolen base and Paulino made a throwing error.

Ian Desmond hit a solo homerun in the first inning to give the Nationals a 1-0 lead. In the second inning the Nationals took a 5-0 lead. Jesus Flores hit an RBI double and Tom Milone hit a three run homerun. In the fourth inning Pagan had a two run single to cut the lead to 5-2. Evans hit a two run homerun and the game was a one run game at 5-4 Nationals. In the fifth inning Roger Bernadina hit a solo homerun to give the Nationals a 6-4 lead. Bay hit a two run homerun in the sixth and the Mets had tied the game at six. In the seventh inning the Mets took a 7-6 lead on a Duda sacrifice fly. In the bottom of the ninth inning the Nationals won the game on a walk-off two run single by Ryan Zimmerman.

The Mets have lost the first two games of the series in Washington. They will attempt to avoid the sweep on Sunday afternoon. Bay had been 0-35 on the road before his homerun. The previous record for a Mets position player was 0-32 by Cleon Jones. Al Leiter was 0-70 on the road but he was a pitcher. The Mets are now three games under 500. It is amazing some of the losses they have had this year but they continue to play hard and fight to the finish which is a good sign for them. The Mets have gone through a lot this year with the change in manager and GM, the owners financial mess and now the latest minority owner having his deal fall through. The Mets have played well for most of the year considering the circumstances. They have to continue to fight and set 500 as a goal for the season. If they can do that they should feel good about coming into spring training next year and making progress.