Flushing, NY (Sports Network) – Steve Lombardozzi singled in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, sending the Nationals past the Mets, 3-2, in the opener of a four-game series.
Wilson Ramos went 2-for-4 and drove in a run for Washington, which has won three of its last four.
R.A. Dickey (8-12) yielded three runs — two earned — on eight hits in the loss, New York’s third straight. The knuckleballer fanned seven in as many innings.
“As it’s happened in so many of his starts, we just didn’t give him any runs to work with,” Mets manager Terry Collins said.
Todd Coffey (5-1) struck out the reigning NL Player of the Week, Jason Bay, to strand two runners in the sixth, earning the win behind Ross Detwiler.
Detwiler was pulled after giving up run-scoring hits to David Wright and Angel Pagan earlier in the sixth, the latter tying the game on a bloop double down the right-field line.
Washington re-took the lead in the next half-inning, as Lombardozzi singled through the left side with two outs to plate Brian Bixler.
“To get the game-winning RBI is a pretty awesome feeling,” said the rookie Lombardozzi, who had been 0-for-15 at the plate prior to the at-bat.
Tyler Clippard pitched two perfect innings to bridge the gap between Coffey and Drew Storen, who worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth to post his 35th save.
Ramos broke a scoreless tie with an RBI single in the fifth, and Rick Ankiel drove in another run in the sixth.