The New York Mets avoid the sweep and defeat the Washington Nationals

The New York Mets defeated the Washington Nationals by the score of 9-5 on Thursday afternoon. The game took place at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. R.A. Dickey started for the Mets and wasn’t great but he wasn’t bad either. The Mets bullpen was pretty good and David Wright led their offense. Gio Gonzalez started for the Nationals and did not pitch well at all. Their bullpen wasn’t very good either and their offense was spread around. 
Dickey pitched 7 1/3 innings giving up 10 hits and four runs with three of them being earned. He walked one and struck out five. Tim Byrdak struck out the only batter that he faced, Ramon Ramirez gave up a hit without recording an out and Josh Edgin pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit. Bobby Parnell pitched an inning giving up two hits and a run and struck out two. Dickey improved his record to 13-1. Gonzalez is now 12-5 on the season, he pitched 3 1/3 innings giving up six hits and six runs with three walks and two strikeouts. Craig Stammen pitched 3 1/3 innings giving up five hits and three runs with a walk and two strikeouts and Henry Rodriguez pitched 1 1/3 perfect innings. Drew Storen pitched a perfect inning.

Ruben Tejada had two hits and an RBI, Andres Torres had two hits and drew a walk and Wright had two hits, five RBI and drew a walk. Jason Bay drew a walk, Ike Davis had two hits and two RBI and Justin Turner had two hits. Josh Thole had a hit and drew a walk. Torres, Thole and Turner each had a double and Wright hit two homeruns. Davis also hit a homerun. The Mets were 3-8 with runners in scoring position and they left five men on base. Dickey and Wright each had a throwing error. Thole had a passed ball.

Steve Lombardozzi had two hits, Ryan Zimmerman had two hits and an RBI and Mark DeRosa had a couple of hits. Adam LaRoche drew a walk, Ian Desmond had a hit and Michael Morse had a hit and two RBI. Espinosa had a hit, Roger Bernadina had two hits and an RBI and Sandy Leon had a hit. Moore had two hits, DeRosa and Morse each had a double. Zimmerman had a homerun and the Nationals were 2-14 with runners in scoring position and they left 12 men on base.

Wright hit a two run homerun in the first to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. Zimmerman hit a solo homerun in the bottom of the first to make it a 2-1 game. Davis hit a solo homerun in the top of the second and it was 3-1 Mets. In the third Hairston grounded into a double play but a run scored and Davis had an RBI single to make it 5-1 Mets. Tejada had an RBI single and Wright hit a three run homerun in the fourth inning and the Mets had a 9-1 lead. Morse hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth to make it a 9-2 game. In the eighth Morse hit an RBI double and Leon reached on a throwing error and a run scored to make it 9-4. In the ninth the Nationals scored the last run on a Bernadina RBI single. The final score was 9-5 Mets.

The Mets lost two out of three in the series. The Mets record improved to 47-45 and the Nationals record fell to 53-37. The Mets will return home to open up a three game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers.