The Nats beat the Mets 3-1 behind Stephen Strasburg who out-dueled Noah Syndergaard with a 7 inning gem. The save tonight by Jonathan Papelbon was #367 of his career for 9th on the all-time saves list. This was also Papelbon’s 18th save of the year in 20 games which put him at a 90% save percentage which is in the elite category. Papelbon’s velo ticked up in this game to average 92.5mph on his fastball with a max velo of 93.7mph.
The Nats’ bullpen bent but didn’t break. Shawn Kelley came in for the 8th inning, and the lead-off batter blooped in a double while the next batter was robbed of an RBI as Daniel Murphy dove for the ball on the outfield grass to keep it as an ‘infield’ single which put runners at 3rd and 1st with no outs. Dusty Baker pulled Kelley and brought in lefty Oliver Perez who got Granderson on a 3-1 pitch on a lazy liner on the infield. Dusty pulled Perez and brought in Blake Treinen against Lagares who grounded hard to Daniel Murphy who started a 4-6-3 doubleplay to end the inning. Papelbon had a nice 1-2-3 9th inning to cap the win needing just 11 pitches to finish off the game.
All the offense the Nats really needed was the 2-run HR that Clint Robinson hit off of Noah Syndergaard.
The third and final run of the game for the Nationals was on a deep line drive RBI double from none other than the Mets killer Daniel Murphy.
Noah Syndergaard was removed in the 5th inning with arm fatigue, and the Mets bullpen shut the Nats down to keep the score at 3-1.
Here is a Syndergaard chart prepared by DonH. Look at that K rate he gets in CitiField:
Stephen Strasburg took his 6 2/3 no-hitter forward to add 4 full no-hit innings to that tally for 10 2/3 combined before giving up that HR to Asdrubal Cabrera on a pitch which was dotted where Strasburg wanted it, and Drubs was looking for that pitch in that spot and didn’t miss it. Strasburg improved to 12-0, and it now appears he will start next Friday night for the Nationals against the Pirates for the first game to start the traditional 2nd half of the season.
Here is your video replay of all the highlights from last night for your Washington Nationals!https://t.co/DmL1kmOArP
— TALK NATS Blog (@TalkNats2) July 9, 2016
