The Mets defeat the Nationals behind a strong Jon Niese

The Mets defeated the Washington Nationals on Saturday night by the score of 2-0. The game took place at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. Jon Niese started for the Mets and was great, the bullpen was able to hold the lead. Ike Davis led the Mets offense. Edwin Jackson started for the Nationals and was good but not as good as Niese. Their bullpen was also good and their offense was led by Danny Espinosa.
Niese pitched 7 1/3 innings giving up five hits and no runs, he didn’t walk a batter and struck out seven. Niese won his 10^th game of the season. Jon Rauch faced two batters and retired them both and Frank Francisco pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout. He picked up his 20^th save. Jackson lost his eighth game of the season pitching seven innings and giving up two hits and two runs with a walk and 11 strikeouts. Ryan Mattheus pitched 1 2/3 perfect innings with three strikeouts and Mike Gonzalez pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit and striking out one.
Mike Baxter had a hit, David Wright drew a walk and Davis had two hits and two RBI. Baxter hit a triple and Davis hit a homerun. The Mets were 0-2 with runners in scoring position and left three men on base. Espinosa had two hits, Ryan Zimmerman had a hit and Adam LaRoche had a hit. Flores had a hit, LaRoche hit a double and the Nationals were 0-4 with runners in scoring position and they left five men on base. Zimmerman had a stolen base and Desmond committed an error.
The Mets scored the only runs of the game in the seventh on a two run homerun by Davis. The Mets had a runner on third and one out in the first and didn’t score. The Nationals had first and second one out in the first and didn’t score. There weren’t really any other good scoring chances as this was a pitchers duel.
The Mets record improved to 57-63 and the Nationals record fell to 74-46. The two teams will play the rubber game of the three game series on Sunday afternoon. The Nationals won on Friday night and the Mets evened the series on Saturday night.