Another 10th-inning meltdown, another loss to Mets (updated)

James Wood has spent all of two nights in the big leagues. Each time, the Nationals’ top prospect has found himself stepping to the plate to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning in a tie game. Each time, he hasn’t been able to score the winning run.

And each time, the Nats went on to lose to the Mets after a disastrous top of the 10th.

The script was basically the same tonight, New York scoring five 10th-inning runs after exploding for six in Monday’s series opener. The Nationals didn’t have a last-ditch rally in them and thus lost their fifth straight to their division rivals, this time by a more lopsided score of 7-2.

"I think I've kind of been learning quick that how close these games really are," Wood said, "and one play can really make a difference."

Kept off the bases his first three times up tonight, even though he scorched the ball each time, Wood finally got a chance to face a right-hander in his fourth plate appearance of the game, his ninth overall in the big leagues. He saw six pitches from the Mets’ Jose Butto, didn’t swing at any of them, and wound up drawing the walk.

But before anyone had the chance to drive him in, Wood got himself out. Trying to reach scoring position on his own, he had catcher Francisco Alvarez’s throw beat, but in slightly oversliding the bag, he was tagged out by shortstop Francisco Lindor for his first career caught stealing.

"I was trying to slide to the outside," he said. "Just slid past. Just try to take a better slide, I guess. It's just an experience you learn from."

So for the second straight night, these two teams went to extra innings, the Nats left to hope their fast-fading bullpen could survive extra innings. Robert Garcia wasn’t up to the task, surrendering five runs on four hits during the decisive inning via doubles by Jose Iglesias and Brandon Nimmo, a single by Mark Vientos and the final-blow homer by Pete Alonso.

"Honestly, I thought I made some good pitches today, and I thought I made some really bad ones," Garcia said. "And they just hit the bad ones. ... This one sucks. You never want to lose a game for your team and let them down like that. But tomorrow's a new day."

The Nationals, on the other hand, again failed to capitalize on their scoring opportunities, going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

"We need to start winning games in regulation, is what we need to do," manager Davey Martinez said. "We've got to start hitting a little better. You can't score two runs, three runs, and expect to win against a team you know is notorious for scoring a bunch of runs. We've got to start hitting better."

Despite another gem from DJ Herz, who struck out 10 without walking anybody over 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball, the Nationals couldn’t reward the rookie left-hander with a win. Hunter Harvey, still stinging from a five-run implosion in the top of the 10th on Monday night, surrendered the tying run in the top of the eighth tonight, leaving this game undecided as it approached the finish line.

A week ago, Herz looked like he might have been pitching for his job. With Josiah Gray and Cade Cavalli seemingly on the verge of returning from injuries, at least one member of the current rotation was going to have to go, and the fact Herz still has minor league options loomed large.

Back-to-back shaky starts at Colorado and San Diego could’ve been his undoing, but the revelation this week that Gray has been shut down with a recurrence of elbow discomfort and Cavalli must build his arm back up after a bout of the flu all but guarantees Herz will stick around a while longer.

He’s certainly not going anywhere after this performance.

Herz’s fastball command was on display right from the outset: He completed his first two innings on 35 pitches, 30 of those for strikes. The Mets made him work a bit, with 23 foul balls over the course of his start, but he kept forcing them to swing by keeping the ball around the plate.

"He was going right after the hitters," Martinez said. "And we talk about it all the time: It was all pretty much fastballs and changeups. He only threw a handful of breaking balls, which was great. He's in and out, up and down. And when he can do that, his changeup is effective. The kid's been awesome."

Lindor finally made solid contact in the top of the sixth, blasting a 1-2 fastball to left for a leadoff homer. But Herz responded with back-to-back strikeouts of Nimmo and Vientos, and when he handed the ball to Martinez a few moments later, he walked off the mound with a wide smile on his face as the crowd saluted him for another stellar performance.

"Really happy," Herz said. "It was nice coming back home. I think that was my first time on the road trip, adjusting to the plane rides and going across the country. It definitely takes some getting used to. It was good to come back home and do this and give my guys a chance to win."

All told, Herz struck out 10 without issuing a walk, nearly matching his 13-strikeout showing against the Marlins three weeks ago. He’s only the sixth pitcher in Nationals history with multiple 10-strikeout, zero-walk games, joining Max Scherzer (20), Stephen Strasburg (10), Jordan Zimmermann (two), Joe Ross (two) and John Patterson (two) in that exclusive club. And Herz has done it twice in only six big league starts.

"It's good for my confidence," he said. "(Pitching strategist Sean) Doolittle was talking about it, and so was (pitching coach Jim) Hickey: 'Don't give these guys too much credit. Your stuff is really good. Just get it over there, and be confident with it.'"

Herz’s teammates helped out with just enough run support to put him in line for the win. They had to manufacture everything they got against the Mets’ Sean Manaea, but they scratched out two runs off the veteran left-hander.

Three of their first four hits were infield singles, two of those by CJ Abrams, the second of which managed to score Nick Senzel (who also reached on an infield single) from third. (Jacob Young doubled off the wall in between those two.)

The Nats scored their second run without even recording any type of hit. Young drew a leadoff walk, then went first to third when Alonso couldn’t handle Lane Thomas’ sharp grounder. And when Harold Ramírez busted down the line just enough to prevent an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play, Young crossed the plate with the Nationals’ second run off Manaea.

Wood, meanwhile, had no trouble making hard contact in his first three plate appearances – his exit velocities tonight were 97.7 mph, 107.8 mph and 111.6 mph – but he couldn’t elevate the ball and thus was retired three times on sharply hit ground balls.

"Obviously you want the balls to find holes, but that's just baseball sometimes," he said. "I've just got to keep swinging at good pitches and hope the results come tomorrow."