Washington Nationals defeat New York Mets 3-2 – MLB Update
The Washington Nationals edged past the New York Mets 3-2 on Monday, September 12 to gain a precious one-game lead in the four-game series at Citi Field in New York.
Stephen Lombardozzi drove in a run in the seventh inning to give the Nationals a one-run lead over the Mets and the bull-pen then complimented his effort, pitching three perfect-innings in the depth to seal the game for the visitors.
Tyler Clippard showed immense composure in his two innings at the mound, throwing 18 pitches and yielding 15 strikes to push his ERA down to 1.91 for the season. Clippard’s performance virtually took the game away from the Mets who, in the sixth inning,
were level with the Nationals at 2-2.
Clippard successfully held his 33rd game of the season to reiterate his authority on the mound before Drew Storen pitched a perfect ninth to hand Nationals their 68th win of the season. The gulf between wins and Washington has been
large this season and this victory might help them improve their showing for the next season.
The Nationals scored a run each in the fifth and the sixth inning to impose pressure on the home side but a two-run sixth inning kept the game in balance for the Mets, who themselves have failed to put on a graceful show this season. The Mets have had a
miserable time at home, losing 41 games out of the total 72 played.
The conditions were not appropriate for a high-scoring game and thus the pitchers had a major role to play in this game. R.A. Dickey, in this situation, could not produce a decent start to the Mets and ended up losing his 12th start of the season.
He showed good arm strength to pitch seven innings but was not able to restrict the flow of runs for the Nationals, leaking three runs amid eight hits over 112 pitches. Although, he struck-out seven batters in this illustrious spell, they were not enough to
hand him a decent result.
Todd Coffey, on the contrary, got lucky to win his fifth game for the Nationals after throwing just four pitches over 0.1 innings.
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