Mets Win Walk-Off Thriller Over Nats, 7-6

The New York Mets won a hallmark game over the Washington Nationals on Friday night at Citi Field, coming back twice to win 7-6 in the bottom of the ninth, moving into a tie with the Milwaukee Brewers for the second wild-card spot in the National League (box score).

Right-hander Marcus Stroman, making his first home start as a member of the Mets, allowed three runs in the fourth but New York managed to tie the game behind back-to-back home runs from Pete Alonso and J.D. Davis in the bottom half of the frame.

With Trea Turner on base (walk; Stroman’s final batter), Justin Wilson allowed a go-ahead, two-run home run to Anthony Rendon in the seventh to put the Mets in a 5-3 hole. Seth Lugo — warming up in the bullpen and currently the hottest relief pitcher on the planet at the time of the homer — may have been the wiser choice in that spot, but hindsight is 20/20.

The Mets wasted an opportunity in the eighth, leaving Amed Rosario stranded on second after a one-out double, but didn’t let another chance pass them by in the ninth, tying the game on Todd Frazier‘s three-run home run, and winning it on Michael Conforto‘s two-out,  walk-off RBI base hit.

Pitching

Stroman worked around a leadoff infield single via Turner in the first, striking out Rendon and Juan Soto to leave Turner, who stole second (his 24th swiped bag this season), stranded in scoring position.

The 28-year-old Medford product struck out the side in the second, retiring Matt Adams looking at a well-placed cutter, Kurt Suzuki swinging and caught Brian Dozier watching a 2-2 slider roll right down Broadway for his fifth consecutive strikeout.

Victor Robles reached on an infield hit that easily could have been a double down the line if not for Todd Frazier’s terrific stab to start the third but was thrown out attempting to steal second on a perfect strike via Wilson Ramos. Stroman then struck out Strasburg and got Turner swinging to cap off his third scoreless frame, bringing a raucous Citi Field crowd to its feet.

Adam Eaton led off the fourth with a well-hit single into right and came around to score the game’s first run when Rendon clobbered a double into the right-center gap.

Soto crushed a two-run homer to right in the next at-bat to make it a 3-0 game, then Adams singled after him, bringing pitching coach Phil Regan out for an early chat. After the brief mound meeting, Stroman induced a 5-4-3 double play from Suzuki and got Dozier to ground out to escape the jam.

Stroman issued a two-out walk to Turner in the fifth — his first base-on-balls of the night — and gave up a single to Eaton in the next at-bat, but the right-hander got Rendon swinging at a 92 MPH cutter to end the threat, his eighth strikeout of the evening.

After Stroman allowed a leadoff double down the right-field line via Soto in the sixth, Adams lined a ball off Alonso’s glove to move Soto to third (despite being waved home on the play). Suzuki then grounded out to Frazier at third, who decided to throw home instead of conceding a run and going for the double play, leaving runners on second and third with one out.

Amed Rosario leaped and snatched Eaton’s 102.3 MPH exit velocity, likely two-RBI liner at its zenith for the second out of the frame, and after Robles was intentionally walked, Stroman struck out Strasburg swinging at a 86 MPH slider — his 102nd pitch of the evening — to leave the bases loaded and the score tied at three.

Stroman surprisingly got the ball back to start the seventh, walked Turner, and was immediately retrieved by Mets skipper Mickey Callaway, finishing his evening after six (plus a batter) innings, allowing four earned runs on nine hits, with a season-high nine strikeouts and three walks (one intentional) on 108 pitches (66 strikes).

Justin Wilson got the call in relief and struck out Eaton for the first out but gave up a two-run, go-ahead homer to Rendon (with right-hander and reigning NL Reliever of the Month, Seth Lugo warming in the bullpen), staking Washington to a 5-3 lead.

Soto reached on a soft grounder to first, advanced to second on a wild pitch and stole third before Wilson struck out Adams and retired Suzuki to limit the damage.

Robert Gsellman pitched a perfect eighth, inducing two groundball outs and a strikeout (Andrew Stevenson). Turner and Eaton began the ninth with back-to-back hits off Gsellman. Turner advanced to third on Rendon’s sacrifice fly, bringing left-hander Luis Avilan into the game to face Soto, who struck out. Avilan then sent a 2-2 pitch into the dirt, allowing Turner to score from third to make it 6-3, before striking out Adams.

Offense

Strasburg set down the first nine Mets he faced before walking Jeff McNeil to lead off the fourth, then, with two outs, Pete Alonso tattooed a 110.3 MPH exit velocity, 426-foot two-run laser beam into the left-field seats to cut the Nats’ lead to 3-2.

In the next at-bat, J.D. Davis continued his white-hot streak (16-for-49 since July 25, entering Friday) with a towering shot into the upper deck in right field (104 MPH EV, 377 feet) to tie the game at three, sending Citi Field into an absolute frenzy.

Amed Rosario broke an 0-for-9 slide with his leadoff single in the bottom of the sixth and Michael Conforto blooped a single into shallow left field, putting runners on the corners with none out but Alonso softly lined out, Davis struck out, and Wilson Ramos grounded out to end the rally.

Rosario laced a one-out double to the wall in right-center off new Nats hurler, right-hander Daniel Hudson, in the eighth, but Conforto and Alonso both grounded out to leave him stranded.

Davis led off the ninth with a double over the third-base bag and Ramos followed with a single to put runners at the corners, and Todd Frazier blasted a three-run homer down the left-field line to tie the game at six.

Panik sent his first base hit as a Met through the middle in the next at-bat, but was erased on Juan Lagares‘ failed sacrifice bunt attempt. Rosario added his third hit of the night, a two-out single, bringing Conforto to the plate, who drove a ball deep into the right-field corner, scoring Lagares and sending a packed house home happy.

On Deck

Noah Syndergaard (8-5, 3.96 ERA) will take the mound for New York versus Washington left-hander, Patrick Corbin (9-5, 3.43 ERA), in the second game of this three-game set at Citi Field (7:10 PM ET) on Saturday.

The game will be televised on WPIX and broadcast on WCBS 880 AM.