NEW YORK, NY – MAY 18: Juan Lagares #12 of the New York Mets catches a ball hit by Daniel Murphy #20 of the Washington Nationals in the seventh inning that led to a run during their game at Citi Field on May 18, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

The Washington Nationals (23-16) defeated the New York Mets (22-16) tonight by the final score of 7-1. For a full boxscore recap follow the link below…

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2016_05_18_wasmlb_nynmlb_1#game=2016_05_18_wasmlb_nynmlb_1,game_state=Wrapup,game_tab=box

Game Notes:

• Bartolo Colon had a tough outing going 4.2 innings while allowing 3 runs on 5 hits. Colon walked 5 and struck out 4.
• Antonio Bastardo pitched 0.2 of an inning and allowed a 2 run single to Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos.
• Jim Henderson pitched an inning and allowed 2 runs on 2 hits. He struck out 2 and walked a batter.
• Yoenis Cespedes was 2-4 with a solo HR.
• Asdrubal Cabrera was 2-4 with a double.

A very uncharacteristic game for Mets pitchers tonight as it seemed everyone was struggling with their command. It was a wet and cold night at Citi Field, but who knows if that had anything to do with it. The Mets have been praised for their ability to not provide free-passes all season and tonight they allowed a whopping eleven walks and two hit by pitches. They put way too many baserunners on tonight and put the pressure on themselves to squeeze out of jams which seemed to happen every inning. We’ll chalk this one up as an off-night for the pitchers, but we will need a much better performance out of the pitchers if they want to get a series victory tomorrow night. 

One flaw early in the season with this Mets ball club has been their inability to hit with runners in scoring position. All three runs the Mets have scored this series have come via three solo home runs. The Mets had a chance to get back into this game in the bottom of the seventh down four runs with the bases loaded and one out, but they could not convert on their opportunity. The Mets are dead last in the league with a .208 average when it comes to runners in scoring position, and that is something that they will need to improve on over the course of the season. 

It was a tough loss as you hate losing to the Nationals no matter how early in the season it still may be. There was one shining moment tonight however, as Juan Lagares made a Willy Mays-esque over-the-shoulder catch in center field in the bottom of the seventh inning, which was absolutely incredible. We’ll have one more crack at the Nationals tomorrow night and hope for better results, especially from the pitching staff. 

• The Mets and Nationals will play the rubber game of their three game set tomorrow night at 7:10 pm et. The game can be seen on SNY and MLB Network.

• Matt Harvey (3-5, 4.93 ERA) will look to right the ship again and face Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg (6-0, 2.95 ERA).