WASHINGTON — After one of the hottest months in baseball, it suddenly feels like a battle of attrition for the Mets.
In the last week, the Mets have lost right fielder Starling Marte and right-handed reliever Drew Smith to injuries, and closer Edwin Diaz to suspension. Monday in Washington, the Mets played without star outfielder Brandon Nimmo, who fainted in his hotel room early in the morning and split his forehead open.
But J.D. Martinez put the depleted Mets on his back and carried them once again. His 10th inning, three-run go-ahead bomb off right-hander Hunter Harvey spurred a six-run surge that led the Amazins’ to a 9-7 win over the Washington Nationals on Monday night at Nationals Park.
“A win is a win, right?” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “It was hard for us at the beginning [against MacKenzie] Gore, we were having a hard time getting to his fastball. We hit some balls hard, but we couldn’t put much together. We had better at bats against their bullpen and then in the next round, after the three-run homer, [we] continued with really good at bats, continued to put pressure [on them], and that was the difference in the game.”
The Mets (41-41) went down 2-0 in the third and went up 3-2 in the sixth before the Nats came back to tie it at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth. They poured it on in the top of the10th and held off a rally in the bottom of the inning, picking up a big NL East win to start an eight-game road trip.
Harvey (2-4) hit Harrison Bader with a pitch to put two on in the top of the 10th, putting two on for Martinez. The slugger fouled off three pitches before getting a hold of a splitter and sending it 420 feet to straightaway center for his 10th of the season.
“I was just try to get something up,” Martinez sasid. “The last thing I wanted to do was swing at a split in the dirt. He threw me that fastball up, and I felt like I was able to foul it off. So I was just trying to get something up and not chase him.”
Martinez went 1-for-3 with a homer and two walks, struggling to pick up Gore’s fastball earlier in the game.
“I thought he was a little off today, especially in the first couple of at bats,” Mendoza said. “I thought he was a tick late and he still found a way to walk couple times. And then obviously, that three-run homer in extras was huge.”
The Mets didn’t stop there, with Tyrone Taylor hitting a double and Francisco Alvarez scoring him on a triple. Alvarez’s fly ball went 379 feet, nearly going the distance for a home run. Instead, it hit the bullpen fence, registering as his first career triple.
“I enjoyed that triple a lot,” Alvarez said.
Jordan Weems came in to stop the bleeding for the Nats (39-45), only to give up a two-run homer to Jose Iglesias.
Washington came back in the bottom of the 10th, taking four runs off left-hander Tyler Jay. Reed Garrett allowed an inherited runner to score before finally shutting the door for the save (four).
It was a big night for the Nats, with the club calling up their top-overall prospect and the No. 3 prospect in baseball, outfielder James Wood. A local product from nearby Olney, Maryland, Wood singled off left-hander David Peterson in his first career big-league at-bat in the second inning and represented the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.
Wood sent a slow roller short of the mound to lead off the ninth and left-hander Jake Diekman (2-2) overthrew first base, allowing the rookie to reach second. Diekman retired the next three to get out of the inning.
Right-hander Dedniel Nuñez nearly had the Mets out of the eighth inning with the lead still intact, but the Nationals tied it at 3-3 with two outs. Right-hander Kyle Finnegan sat the Mets down in order in the ninth.
They chased Gore from the game with two outs in the sixth. Right-hander Derek Law came in to face Mark Vientos, which seemed like the right move at the time. A right-handed hitter, Vientos boasts better splits against lefties than righties.
But Vientos lined one to left to score Bader and cut the lead in half, 2-1.
Taylor reached on an error when his grounder went right through the legs of shortstop C.J. Abrams. With two on and two out, Alvarez drove them home with a double to right-center field. The Mets went up 3-2.
Gore was charged with one earned run on five hits, walking one and striking out eight.
Peterson allowed two runs in a tough third inning, but settled in from there, giving the Mets a chance to win. The two runs came on seven hits, and Peterson walked one and struck out two over 6 1/3 innings.
“For me, the goal is put a zero up and get those guys back in the dugout,” Peterson said. “Let them do their thing.”