Game #147: Nationals 3, Mets 2

With former great manager Davey Johnson back home in Flushing for the series, one would have hoped that some of his greatness would have rubbed off on the franchise he managed to a World Series in 1986. The opposite seemed to reign true tonight: his current team took all the greatness.

R.A. Dickey was solid but, once again, fell victim to no offensive support, and the Mets dropped their series-opening game to the Nationals, 3-2.

The Bad Stuff:

• A day after getting more hits than they could apparently handle, New York decided to cut back a bit tonight. How much of a cutback? Let's just say that the Mets' cutback in hits makes the recent debt ceiling deal look like a stimulus. The Mets managed 3 hits the whole night, and none after the 6th inning.
• Jason Bay went 0-3 with a couple strikeouts. Unfortunately this may be the start of another dreadful stretch for him. Let's hope it's just a fluke.
• Jose Reyes went 0-4, dropping his batting average down to .329, 2 points below Ryan Braun.

The Good Stuff:

• The Mets now have two pitchers on staff with 12 losses: Chris Capuano and, after tonight, R.A. Dickey. Dickey has been far from a 12-loss pitcher for a majority of the season. But surprise, surprise: he got no run support tonight. Again. Dickey lasted 7 innings and gave up 3 runs on 8 hits, walking none and striking out 7. Not great numbers, but good enough that he would have gotten a win with some more runs on the board.
• The bullpen kept it close in the 8th and 9th as well: Josh Stinson, Daniel Herrera, DJ Carrasco, and Tim Byrdak combined for a couple scoreless innings.
• David Wright and Angel Pagan each went 1-3 with RBIs in the 6th, staging a Met mini-rally that tied the game at that point.

Final Analysis:
With just over two weeks to go in the season, the gas may have finally run out on this team. They've fought back against everything that's been thrown at them all year, but with 15 games to go, the tank may finally be dried up. As it stands right now, New York must win 11 of their last 15 games to finish above .500. If they can't, hey, it's understandable: it's hard to go 11-4 in any stretch. Still, the way they've fought all year, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they matched that mark.

MM