The New York Mets defeat the Washington Nationals 5-3 in Port St. Lucie

The New York Mets defeated the Washington Nationals by the score of 5-3 on Saturday afternoon in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Zach Wheeler pitched a very impressive two innings for the Mets, Ruben Tejada hit a homerun and Marlon Byrd had a couple of hits. 
Shaun Marcum started for the Mets and pitched two innings giving up four hits and three runs, Wheeler pitched two scoreless giving up a hit and a walk and striking out two and Cory Mazzoni got the win pitching two scoreless giving up a hit and striking out three. Darin Gorski pitched two innings giving up a hit and a walk with a strikeout and Bobby Parnell picked up the save pitching an inning giving up a hit and striking out one.

Stephen Strasburg started for the Nationals and pitched two inning giving up three hits and two runs with a strikeout, Drew Stammen pitched two innings giving up three hits and a run with a strikeout and Fernando Abad pitched an inning giving up two walks and striking out one. Bill Bray took the loss pitching an inning giving up three hits and two runs with one of them being earned with a walk and a strikeout. Erik Davis pitched a scoreless inning giving up a walk and striking out two and Cole Kimball pitched a scoreless inning giving up a walk.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis had a hit, Colin Cowgill had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk and also scored from second on a groundout. Tejada had a hit and two RBI, Ike Davis drew a walk and Byrd had two hits. Justin Turner had a hit and Jordany Valdespin had a hit and an RBI. Byrd and Cowgill each hit a double and Tejada hit a homerun. The Mets were 2-8 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. Bixler, Brown and Hicks each made a fielding error and Buck had a passed ball.

Steve Lombardozzi drew a walk, Bryce Harper had a hit and Ian Desmond had a hit. Chris Marrero had a hit and an RBI, Chris Snyder had two hits and two RBI and Micah Owings had a hit. Marrero hit a double and Snyder hit a homerun. The Nationals were 1-12 with runners in scoring position and they left ten men on base. Perez and Rhymes each had a stolen base. Tracey and Owings each committed an error.

Tejada hit a two run homerun in the first to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. The Nationals took a 3-2 lead in the second inning. Marrero hit an RBI double and Snyder hit a two run homerun. Valdespin hit an RBI single in the fourth inning to tie the game at three. In the sixth inning the Mets scored two runs to take a 5-3 lead and that is how the game would end up. Cowgill hit an RBI double and Omar Quintanilla reached on an error scoring the final run of the game.

The Mets are 1-0 in the grapefruit league and the Nationals are 0-1. The Mets will play at the Houston Astros on Sunday afternoon and the Nationals will remain home to take on the Miami Marlins.