NAT A CHANGE!
Bats stay silent as Amazin's drop series to division rivals
WASHINGTON — Dead arms and deader bats conspired to leave the Mets at a dead-end over three days at Nationals Park.
The momentum of their previous week, when they beat up on the Padres and Cubs — two legitimate playoff contenders — has dissipated and now the Mets have to figure out how to survive a steady diet of NL East competition.
They flunked the first test, losing 5-2 to the Nationals on Sunday to drop three of four games in the series. Now it’s back to Citi Field for eight games over seven days against the Braves and Phillies before returning to Nationals Park for a makeup game and heading to Atlanta next week.
“This is definitely a tough stretch of our schedule, with the number of doubleheaders,” Kevin Pillar said. “Our coaching staff, our training staff, is doing a good job, which you saw over the last couple of days, giving guys a little bit of a breather. Just knowing how many games we have in this next little stretch.
“We’re just going to keep fighting. We didn’t play our best baseball here, but I don’t think we played our worst. We just ran into an extremely hot hitter and he single-handedly was able to win some games for them.”
That hitter was Kyle Schwarber, who blasted three homers Sunday to give him five in the final two games of the series. The surging Nationals won for the seventh time in eight games.
“[Schwarber] was just hitting every fastball we threw at him,” said Taijuan Walker, who turned in a rare shaky performance on a day the Mets scored two runs or fewer for the fourth time in five games.
Schwarber’s third homer of the day, a two-run blast against Jeurys Familia in the seventh, was the finishing touch on a day the Mets managed only four hits against Patrick Corbin and the Nationals bullpen.
Walker pitched to loud contact early and allowed four earned runs on 10 hits over 6 ¹/3 innings. It snapped a string of eight straight starts in which Walker allowed three earned runs or fewer.
“It’s one of those days where it’s hot — I had to grind today,” Walker said. “I didn’t have my best stuff. I didn’t have my best fastballs today, so I started mixing off-speed early.”
Pete Alonso’s 11th homer of the season, a shot leading off the seventh, had cut the Mets’ deficit to 3-2. Alonso was in a 2-for-18 rut, but had indicated a day earlier he felt good about his approach at the plate. The homer was his first since June 9.
Corbin was removed after Pillar walked following Alonso’s homer, but reliever Kyle Finnegan got pinch-hitter Dominic Smith to hit into a double play and then struck out Billy McKinney. The left-hander Corbin allowed two earned runs on four hits over six-plus innings with seven strikeouts and one walk.
Schwarber’s second homer of the game gave the Nationals a 3-1 lead in the fifth. Schwarber homered twice in the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader before going deep leading off the game for the Nationals on Sunday.
“You’re swinging the bat like that, there’s nothing they can throw that will fool you,” manager Luis Rojas said. “You are going to take some nasty pitches, and he did that today. You are going to lay off some and you are going to catch up to some nasty ones, too.”
Pillar’s homer leading off the second gave the Mets their first run. The blast was the sixth of the season for Pillar, who went to the opposite field against Corbin, just clearing the right-field fence.
“We’re in a good position being up four games despite everything that has gone on this year,” Pillar said. “[The NL East] is going to be a dogfight until the very last series. We know we have division games coming up, but there is no added incentive or added pressure. We’re trying to win every game we play, regardless of the opponent.”