The New York Mets (26-18) defeated the Washington Nationals (27-18) this evening 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_23_nynmlb_wasmlb_1#game=2016_05_23_nynmlb_wasmlb_1,game_tab=box,game_state=Wrapup

Game Notes:

• David Wright was 1-4 with a 3-run HR.
• Yoenis Cespedes was 2-4 with a solo HR.
• Neil Walker was 2-4 with a solo HR and went back-to-back with Cespedes in the bottom of the 5th.
• Asdrubal Cabrera was 2-4 with an RBI.
• Bartolo Colon was solid for 7 innings allowing only 1 run on 5 hits with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.
• Jerry Blevins and Logan Verrett combined for 2 shutout innings.

You could pretty much take last Wednesday’s 7-1 result between the Mets and Nationals, and reverse it to have tonight’s result. Simply ironic that both starting pitchers from tonight were involved in last Wednesday night’s game as well but with opposite results. Gotta love baseball!

Bartolo Colon was vintage Colon tonight and provided the Mets with a much better start than last week’s outing against the Nationals. Besides allowing an RBI single to Ryan Zimmerman in the first inning, Colon seemed to be in cruise control for the rest of the evening, and did not give the Nationals much of a chance to get anything going. The win and solid performance was an early birthday gift for Colon who turns 43 tomorrow. Happy birthday Big Sexy!

David Wright’s 3-run blast to give the Mets the lead provided a jolt of energy in the dugout and seemed to get the Mets offense going for the rest of the game. Wright’s home run was the 86th go-ahead home run of his career, which now broke a tie between him and Mets great Daryl Strawberry for most ever in franchise history. Congratulations to the Captain!

All eyes will be on Matt Harvey tomorrow night to see if he can respond to his disatrious outing last Thursday night against the Nationals. Reports are stating that Harvey insisted he wanted the ball tomorrow night. Knowing the gamer that Harvey is, he’s going to go out there and pitch with a giant chip on his shoulder. The 7 Line Army will be in DC to support Matt tomorrow night, and I’m hoping we see a vintage Harvey performance as the Mets now only sit a half-game out of first place.  

• The Mets and Nationals will play the second game of their three game series tomorrow evening with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 pm et. You can catch tomorrow’s game on SNY.

• Matt Harvey (3-6, 5.77 ERA) will look to rebound in a rematch with Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg (7-0, 2.80 ERA).