QUEENS, NY — Jeff McNeil hit a double on the first pitch from Nationals reliever Cole Henry in the 10th inning, allowing ghost runner Luisangel Acuna to score and securing the Mets’ fourth consecutive win with a 5-4 victory over Washington on Tuesday night at Citi Field.
This highlight capped a two-RBI game for McNeil, who is hitting .341 with four home runs and nine RBI in his last 11 games.
Known for swinging early, the lefty took a 94 mph fastball low in the zone and pulled it to right field.
“I was just looking for anything I could hit to the right side,” McNeil said. “I wasn’t trying to do too much. I felt like they were trying to go hard and away, so I was kind of cheating for something out there and trying to hook the ball to the right side. It got down.”
The Mets (43-24) erased a two-run deficit in the bottom of the eighth, tying the game at four with a two-out rally against Nationals reliever Jose Ferrer and closer Kyle Finnegan.
After Starling Marte drew an eight-pitch walk, Juan Soto made it a one-run game by hitting a 107.3 mph shot to right field off Ferrer, which dropped in front of diving Robert Hassell and slipped past him, allowing Marte to score from first.
“That’s a 12-year veteran taking an at-bat right there,” Soto said of Marte’s walk before discussing his own at-bat. “I just tried to hone in on the mistakes. I know [Ferrer] has nasty stuff. I’m just trying to stay locked in my zone… How things are going, I was definitely hoping [that liner] would get down. It did, and I’m real glad… I got it done.”
Soto had a strong night, going 2-for-4 with a home run, a double, and two RBI.
Pete Alonso followed with a line-drive single off the left-field wall against Finnegan, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, although not before the tying run scored.
Mets reliever Reed Garrett kept the Nationals from scoring the ghost runner in the 10th by getting James Wood to ground out, Nathaniel Lowe to strike out, and Andres Chaparro to fly out.
The Nationals’ recent acquisitions, MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams, almost derailed the Mets. Abrams went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a home run, and two RBI, while Gore allowed two runs on five hits in six innings, striking out six with no walks.
All four Nationals runs came against Mets starter Griffin Canning, who has been struggling recently. He allowed seven hits with four strikeouts and two walks in 5.1 innings, posting a 4.84 ERA in his last five starts after starting the season with a 2.36 ERA in his first eight appearances.
The Nationals scored three runs in the first two innings. Lowe hit his ninth home run of the season, deep to right field. Abrams doubled home Alex Call with two outs in the second. Jose Tena tried to score from first on Abrams’ line drive down the right-field line but was easily thrown out at the plate by Soto.
McNeil pulled one back for the Mets in the second with a two-out bloop single to right, scoring Brandon Nimmo, who had singled and stolen second. This improved McNeil’s record against Gore to 8-for-11.
Soto closed the gap to one in the third when he hit a 2-2 Gore slider over the left-field wall for his 12th home run of the season. After fouling off two fastballs, Soto capitalized on the slider up in the zone.
“I’m waiting for mistakes,” Soto said. “He made a mistake and I put the ball in play.”
Soto appeared to exchange words with the Nationals’ starter as he rounded the bases.
“We were just saying hi to each other,” Soto joked.
“[Gore] got him the first at-bat, and then Soto took him deep,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Maybe they stared at each other. The next time, he got him out on one pitch. I thought they both handled it the way they should’ve handled it.”
Abrams restored Washington’s two-run lead with a ninth home run of the season over the left-field fence in the fifth.
“[Alonso] kinda came by me and said they were going to pick me up, and that sort of says it all right there,” Canning said of his rough outing. “It doesn’t feel good to go out and put us in a hole right away. Just to know that they had my back and were going to grind it out against a really good pitcher on the other side, it’s really nice to see.”
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