The New York Mets defeat the Washington Nationals

The New York Mets defeated the Washington Nationals by the score of 8-3 on Thursday afternoon.  The game took place at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie, Florida.  Matt Bowman started and pitched well, the bullpen was good except Jeurys Familia who had a rough outing.  Matt den Dekker and Matt Reynolds had a couple of hits to lead the offense. 

Bowman pitched five innings giving up  two hits and no runs.  He walked one and struck out four.  Familia pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up four hits and three runs with a walk and a strikeout, Buddy Carlyle pitched to one batter and struck him out and Jennry Mejia pitched an inning giving up a hit and he struck out one.  Mejia picked up his first win of the spring, Dario Alvarez pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout and Erik Goeddel pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts. 

Juan Lagares had a hit and an RBI, den Dekker had two hits and two RBI and Wilmer Flores had a hit and drew a walk.  Kirk Nieuwenhuis drew a walk, Lucas Duda drew a walk and Dominic Smith drew a walk.  John Mayberry Jr. had a hit, Cory Vaughn drew a walk and Eric Campbell had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk.  Ruben Tejada had a hit and drew a walk, Anthony Recker had an RBI and Johnny Monell had a hit.  Cesar Puello had a hit, Bowman had a hit and Reynolds had two hits and three RBI.  Campbell, Reynolds and Monell each hit a double, Reynolds, Lagares and den Dekker each hit a homerun.  The Mets were 2-8 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base. 

In the sixth Campbell hit an RBI double giving the Mets a 1-0 lead.  The Nationals came right back in the bottom of the sixth.  Michael Taylor hit an RBI double to tie the game and Clint Robinson hit an RBI double to give the Nationals a 2-1 lead.  Ryan Zimmerman hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 3-1.  In the seventh Reynolds hit a solo homerun to cut the lead to 3-2 and Lagares hit a solo homerun to tie the game at three.  In the eighth Recker hit a sacrifice fly, Reynolds hit an RBI double and den Dekker hit a two run homerun to make it 7-3 Mets.  In the ninth Reynolds hit a sacrifice fly to make it 8-3 and that was the final score. 

The Mets will take on the St. Louis Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida on Friday afternoon.