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.