The New York Mets were defeated 7-6 by the Washington Nationals and Bryce Harper

The New York Mets were defeated by the Washington Nationals by the score of 7-6 on Saturday afternoon. Bryce Harper was the star of the show with two long home runs. Jeremy Hefner started for the Mets and didn’t pitch that well, Aaron Laffey didn’t pitch well either in relief. Daniel Murphy had a couple of hits to lead their offense. 
Hefner pitched four innings giving up four hits and three runs. He walked three and struck out two. Laffey pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and three runs with a walk, Brandon Lyon pitched 1 1/3 innings striking out two and Josh Edgin took the loss pitching 11/3 innings giving up a hit and a run with three strikeouts. Scott Atchison pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a walk and LaTroy Hawkins pitched a perfect inning.

Justin Turner had a hit and two RBI, Murphy had two hits and an RBI and David Wright had a hit and drew two walks. John Buck had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk, Marlon Byrd had a hit and Lucas Duda drew two walks. Colin Cowgill had a hit and two RBI, Ruben Tejada drew a walk and John Buck hit a double. Wright hit a triple and the Mets were 3-7 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.

Gio Gonzalez started for the Nationals and pitched four innings giving up five hits and five runs. He walked four and struck out five. Craig Stammen pitched two innings striking out five, Ryan Mattheus pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and a run and Tyler Clippard earned his first win of the season pitching 1 1/3 innings giving up a walk and striking out two. Rafael Soriano picked up his sixth save of the season pitching an inning and walking one.

Jayson Werth had a hit and drew a walk, Harper had three hits, three RBI and drew a walk and Adam LaRoche had a hit, three RBI and drew a walk. Ian Desmond had a hit and an RBI, Chad Tracy drew two walks and Espinosa had a hit. Espinosa, Werth and Harper each hit a double, Desmond and LaRoche each hit a homerun and Harper hit two homeruns. The Nationals were 2-4 with runners in scoring position and left three men on base. Tracy was caught stealing.

In the second Desmond hit a solo homerun to give the Nationals a 1-0 lead. Harper hit a two run homerun in the third to increase the Nationals lead to 3-0. In the fourth Cowgill hit a two run single, Turner hit a two run single and Murphy hit an RBI single to give the Mets a 5-3 lead. LaRoche hit a three run homerun in the fifth giving the Nationals a 6-5 lead. Buck hit an RBI double in the seventh to tie the game at six. Harper hit a solo homerun in the eighth to give the Nationals a 7-6 lead and that would be the final score.

The Mets record dropped to 8-8 on the season and the Nationals improved to 10-7 on the season. The two teams will play the rubber game of their three game series on Sunday afternoon.