The New York Mets take the series in Washington behind a strong Matt Harvey

The New York Mets defeated the Washington Nationals by the score of 6-3 on Thursday afternoon.  The game took place at Nationals Park in Washington D.C.  Harvey started and pitched great, the bullpen wasn't as good.  David Wright, Michael Cuddyer and Travis d'Arnaud led the offense with two hits each. 

Harvey pitched six innings giving up four hits and no runs.  He walked one and struck out nine.  Harvey earned his first win of the season.  Alex Torres pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up two runs and two walks with a strikeout, Buddy Carlyle pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and Carlos Torres pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout.  Jeurys Famila pitched an inning giving up two hits and a run with a strikeout. 

Stephen Strasburg pitched 5 1/3 innings giving up nine hits and six runs with three of them being earned.  He walked three and struck out five and took his first loss of the season.  Xavier Cedeno pitched 2/3 of an inning striking out both guys, Tanner Roark pitched two innings giving up a hit and Aaron Barrett pitched an inning with two strikeouts. 

Curtis Granderson had a hit and drew two walks, Wright had two hits and two RBI and Lucas Duda drew a walk.  Cuddyer had two hits and an RBI, Daniel Murphy had a hit and an RBI and Juan Lagares had a hit.  d'Arnaud had two hits and two RBI, Wilmer Flores had a hit and the Mets were 4-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.  Flores committed an error. 

Michael Taylor had two hits and two RBI, Yunel Escobar had a hit and drew a walk and Ian Desmond had two hits and drew a walk.  Dan Uggla had a hit, Lobaton drew a walk and Reed Johnson had a hit and an RBI.  Taylor hit a double and Desmond hit two doubles and the Nationals were 3-8 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.  Escobar was caught stealing and Desmond committed an error. 

In the third Cuddyer hit an RBI single to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.  Murphy hit an RBI single and d'Arnaud hit a two run single to give the Mets a 4-0 lead.  In the sixth Wright hit a two run single to make it a 6-0 game.  In the bottom of the seventh Taylor hit a two run double to cut the lead to 6-2.  In the ninth Johnson hit an RBI single to cut the lead to 6-3 and that was the final score. 

The Mets won two out of three to take the opening series and will now head to Atlanta to take on the Braves in a three game weekend series before returning to New York for the home opener on Monday.