Washington Nationals beat New York Mets 6-4 as Bryce Harper and Michael Morse shine - MLB Update
The centre fielder Bryce Harper and the left fielder Michael Morse lead the Washington Nationals to a 6-4 win against the New York Mets at Nationals Park, Washington, D.C. on August, 17, 2012 in the first game of the three match series.
Harper returns to form in style. After going thru the series with dismal shows on the plate earlier, he finally pleases the Nationals’ manager Davey Johnson who was growing increasingly concerned about his lack of production.
Harper struck a two run homer in the fifth. Before Harper, the left fielder Morse hammered a grand slam hit which took the Nationals past the Mets.
Morse’s grand slam came at a time when Washington trailed by two runs and a couple of more runs by the Mets would have made it extremely tough for the former to bounce back.
After the Nationals took the lead, the Mets tried to launch a counter-attack late in the innings. New York posted one run in the sixth and the seventh each, but despite showing resistance they fell short by two runs.
Meanwhile, Ross Detwiler started for the Nationals and in six innings, he gave up three runs. Furthermore, Washington’s relievers were impressive during the penultimate innings. Tyler Clippard did the closing job and completed a scoreless inning.
While Detwiler restricted the batters to some extent, the Mets’ starter Johan Santana struggled in this regard and allowed six runs in five innings.
Santana despite being hit for two massive home-runs in the match believes that he threw better than his last game and therefore hopes that gradually he will return to form.
"We tried to come up and in to Morse and it just stayed up pretty much in the middle of the plate," Santana said. "I was supposed to throw a fastball away to Harper and it just came back in there. That's telling me I have to work on my command. But compared
to my last (start), I felt this one was way better."
The Nationals are unrelenting in their quest for winning games.
It looks like things are going the Nationals’ way as they manage to dominate the Mets in the opening game of the series. Washington is looking to keep their performances at the same pace as they head toward enjoying one of the most memorable seasons in their
history.
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