Washington Nationals outclass New York Mets 5-2 as Stephen Strasburg solid in seven innings - MLB
Starter Stephen Strasburg records his 11th win as he leads the Washington Nationals to a 5-2 victory against the New York Mets on July 25, 2012 at Citi Field, New York in the last game of the three match series.
Against Strasburg’s fiery pitches, Mets were quiet. As they failed to beat the Nationals’ lead all through the nine innings, the defeat was inevitable.
Throughout the game, the Mets struck just four hits. In light of the fact that their offence has shown signs of serious decline in the last few days, facing Strasburg and sending his throws for big hits was a tough ask.
Furthermore, other than the first baseman Ike Davis and the third baseman David Wright, most of their batters are struggling to make connections on the plate.
Strasburg pitched seven innings on Wednesday. He gave up one run while allowing four hits. The most important aspect of his outing was 11 strike-outs he recorded in the game.
Apart from the starter, the Nationals’ relievers were equally dominant. Most of them completed scoreless innings. Tyler Clippard stepped on the mound as a closer. While keeping the Mets at bay from launching a comeback, he finished the ninth inning scoreless.
As far as Washington’s offence was concerned, Michael Morse and Danny Espinosa took the team to an early lead as both of them struck a home-run.
Meanwhile, the Nationals’ manager Davey Johnson was impressed by the way Strasburg tricked batters and retired them on Wednesday.
"That's him, that's the way he should pitch. He was very pitch efficient from the get-go. He went right after guys," Johnson said. "He's still learning how to pitch in this league. ... He's still a work in progress."
In the meantime, Mets’ manager Terry Collins is optimistic that soon the things will start turning around for them and that the club will begin a new journey.
"We're going to get through it. You will see a different team in the next 10 days, the next two weeks," Collins said. "We're through making excuses."
Collins believes that the losses that they are going through at this moment will serve as a lesson for the players to improve in the upcoming games.
It will be interesting to observe to what extent the manager’s optimism proves to be true in the days to come.
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