LOOK OUT BELOW!
Mets sinking fast as Nats finish sweep
WASHINGTON — The ship be sinking. With due apologies to Micheal Ray Richardson, the S.S. Metropolitan is taking on water faster than Captain Collins and crew can handle and the next stop might be the bottom of Flushing Bay.
In another putrid performance, the Mets hibernated until the ninth inning Wednesday and lost their fourth straight, 4-2 to the Nationals to fall six games behind their hated NL East rival.
The worst part for the Mets? Up next is the Cubs, who will bring the best record in the major leagues to Citi Field for a four-game series beginning Thursday.
“We’re just not even giving ourselves chances,” manager Terry Collins said after Max Scherzer dominated his listless lineup that had gone 23 scoreless innings before James Loney hit a two-run homer in the ninth.
Beforehand, Collins called it a game the Mets (40-37) needed to win given the team’s recent skid — now five losses in seven games — and the fact the Cubs are waiting.
“I don’t think we’ve played half our games yet this year, so there’s a lot of things left that can and hopefully will happen,” Curtis Granderson said. “Obviously you wanted to come in here and have different results than we had at this moment in time, but regardless of what would have happened, we’ve still got a lot of games to play, plus a lot of games against this team and everybody else in our division.”
Only deepening the wound, Daniel Murphy blasted two home runs, giving him four this season against his former team. Murphy’s 14 homers have matched his career high in a season. Against the Mets this season, Murphy is 15-for-35 (.429).
“He’s doing the damage against everybody,” Collins said. “We’ve just got to make better pitches. You can’t miss on the inner-half of the plate to Dan Murphy, especially with the way he’s been swinging the bat.”
Scherzer sizzled, retiring 18 straight bat- ters after surrendering a second-inning single to Asdrubal Cabrera. Brandon Nimmo’s single in the eighth gave the Mets their second hit and Scherzer was removed. The righty struck out 10 and walked one over 7 ¹ /3 innings.
In close to a last gasp, automatic out Alejandro De Aza struck out against Shawn Kelley to end the eighth with the tying runs on base.
Logan Verrett, in a spot start, lasted five innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits with four walks and two strikeouts. It was the fifth start of the season for Verrett (3-5), who had last appeared in that role in Milwaukee on June 11.
Verrett started so Steven Matz could receive an extra day of rest for his barking left elbow, which has a large bone spur. The lefty will get the start Thursday against the Cubs.
“I felt like I kept us in the game and gave us a chance to come back and win it,” Verrett said. “I’m really overall happy with it.”
Murphy’s two-run homer in the eighth against Sean Gilmartin gave the Nationals a 4-0 lead and all but sealed it.
Danny Espinosa’s leadoff double in the third helped the Nationals score their second run on Jayson Werth’s sacrifice fly to center.
Murphy’s homer leading off the second on a Verrett slider put the Mets in a 1-0 hole.
“That guy is a really good hitter,” Verrett said. “He was able to keep his hands inside the ball. I was surprised he was able to keep it fair.” Collins isn’t about to panic. “We’ve still got 11 [games] before the All-Star break,” he said. “We’ve just got to go play them.”