WASHINGTON — When the bullpen door in left field opened before the bottom of the ninth inning Friday it was somebody other than Edwin Diaz entering for the save.
That somebody for the Mets was Ryne Stanek, who had allowed just one earned run over his first 10 appearances this season. But with the save on the line, the right-hander crumbled.
Stanek surrendered two runs, sending the Mets to a 5-4 loss to the Nationals that snapped the Mets’ seven-game winning streak.
James Wood delivered a walkoff RBI single under Jeff McNeil’s glove that allowed CJ Abrams to score all the way from first base. The Nationals had tied the game on Jose Tena’s RBI single against Stanek after Dylan Crews’ leadoff triple.
Diaz departed his last outing on Wednesday with a left hip cramp.
The Mets trailed 3-0 when McNeil singled leading off the eighth. Juan Soto delivered a two-out single and Pete Alonso walked to load the bases. Brandon Nimmo’s slow grounder brought in a run against lefty Jose A. Ferrer before the Nationals summoned closer Kyle Finnegan. But Mark Vientos’ bloop three-run triple (on which Crews dove and missed) gave the Mets a 4-3 lead.
Jesse Winker hit a shot to first base in the fourth. First base umpire Alfonso Marquez ruled that first baseman Nathainel Lowe, with runners advancing from first and second, caught Winker’s ball on a line before throwing to second, where CJ Abrams was credited for recording two outs.
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Replays showed Winker’s ball hit the ground, but the play was not reviewable.
Nimmo and Vientos each singled to begin the inning and were caught off base on the ball that Marquez ruled caught by Lowe.
Kodai Senga lasted six innings for the Mets and allowed two earned runs on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts. It was the second start in his last three in which Senga pitched at least six innings. He was removed after 96 pitches. Senga kept the ball in the park, extending the Mets’ streak to 13 games without a homer allowed by a starting pitcher.
Nimmo’s mental lapse helped the Nationals go ahead 1-0 in the second. Dylan Crews hit a grounder to left field that should have been a two-out single, but when Nimmo was slow retrieving the ball and then lobbed it to third base Crews kept running and reached second. Tena followed with an RBI single.
Abrams smashed an RBI triple in the third that put the Mets in a 2-0 hole. But Senga rallied to get three outs with Abrams scoring. The right-hander struck out Lowe and Keibert Ruiz to end the inning after James Wood was retired on a check-swing grounder in front of the plate.
Abrams’ swinging bunt for a single against Huascar Brazoban in the seventh gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead. Brazoban allowed singles to Crews and Tena to begin the rally.