Nationals 7, Mets 3 F/11: Bullpen Blows Chris Young's Stellar Outing

Chris Young spun seven spectacular innings but the New York Mets bullpen faltered, blowing his chances of a win and extending the game to extra innings, ultimately resulting in a 7-3 Washington Nationals win in 11 innings and a very disappointing Mets loss.

Young threw seven innings of one-run baseball, allowing just one hit and striking out five. He was brilliant in this game and after two starts looks to be a great bargain buy at $1.1 million from Sandy Alderson. But then D.J. Carrasco entered the game in the eighth inning and promptly allowed a double to Ivan Rodriguez, walked Matt Stairs and allowed Ian Desmond to single in Rodriguez. Rick Ankiel then hit an RBI groundout. Taylor Buccholz came on in relief for two outs (walking three batters, striking out one) while Tim Byrdak and Francisco Rodriguez each pitched one-third of an inning -- none allowing a run in their appearances.

The Mets had seven hits through five innings against Jason Marquis -- the only problem was they finished with eight for the entire game. Jose Reyes had three of those hits and Ike Davis had two of them. The bullpen blew the lead, sure, but the batters took more than half of the game off.

Blaine Boyer pitched a clean 10th inning, but the 11th inning was a different story. Adam LaRoche singled and after a sacrifice, Rodriguez singled him home with a hit to right field. The dagger was put in the Mets' coffin when Laynce Nix slugged a three-run homerun to pretty much cap the Nationals win, 7-3. The Mets would go down in order in the ninth inning.

With the bullpen being used so heavily and struggling lately, there are rumors popping up that Jason Isringhausen could be summoned from Triple-A for tomorrow's game against the Colorado Rockies. The Mets are now 4-5 on the year after a very discouraging loss this afternoon.

Mets Vs. Nationals: Chris Young Makes Citi Field Debut, Looks For Second Win Of Season

The New York Mets (4-4) will try to win their second game in a row -- and their second series of the season -- against the Washington Nationals (3-5) this afternoon at Citi Field (1:10 p.m. EST). Taking the mound this afternoon will be Chris Young for the Amazin's and Jason Marquis for the Nats.

Young is coming off a win in solid seven-strikeout performance in five innings against the Phillies, but receives the nod against a less deadly Nationals lineup in a much more favorable ballpark. Young gets his chance to utilize the skills in his home ballpark that enticed the Mets front office to sign him in the first place. Because of a unique arm angle that's about as tall as the Empire State Building he's able to strikeout a good amount of people, despite subpar velocity and he doesn't give up a lot of hits for the type of stuff he has, either. Young is a fly ball pitcher in every aspect of the description and it's the spacious confines of Citi Field that Sandy Alderson and Co. believe will behoove the 6-10 right-hander, just like San Diego's Petco Park did. Young is 3-1 with a 2.42 ERA against the Nationals in his career.

Like Young, Marquis is not an overpowering pitcher, but he doesn't have anything out of the ordinary to fool hitters (and his 5.2 strikeouts per nine innings ratio shows that). He can eat up innings, but he's a pitcher that the Mets should take advantage of pretty easily. For his career he has give up over a hit per inning (9.3 per nine innings). There almost couldn't be a better pitcher (who has mediocre stuff) to fuel an offense (that's been playing pretty well) than Marquis. If Young can keep the team in the game, the hitters should provide enough support in this game to propel the Mets to victory.