Broken record: Nats bullpen cannot hold late lead in 4-3 loss to Mets

NEW YORK - The Nationals are finding it a very difficult proposition to finish off games recently at Citi Field.

Leading in the late going for the fifth game in a row in Flushing, the Nats lost their lead and fell 4-3 to the thriving New York Mets.

Despite two clutch home runs from Juan Soto, the second one a solo shot in the eighth inning that broke a 2-2 deadlock, the Nats bullpen was unable to hold the advantage.

"It's tough, but it is what it is," Soto said. "It happens sometimes. It happened at the beginning of the season, now it has happened. Like before, forget about it and keep fighting every day. Every day, keep fighting."

Leading 3-2 into the bottom of the eighth, reliever Fernando Rodney (0-5) surrendered a solo homer to pitch-hitter Luis Guillorme to lead off the frame. It was Guillorme's first major league home run, and the blast tied the game at 3-3.

"Missed the location a little bit and Guillorme got a good piece of it," said Nationals catcher Yan Gomes. "It's one of those things, man. You miss on location, or heat of the moment comes around. Those kinds of things happen."

Guillorme connected on a full-count, 94-mph, four-seam fastball to knot the game. Rodney left the clubhouse before reporters arrived.

Joe Panik batted next. Trea Turner scooped Panik's grounder, but Turner's low throw glanced off the glove of first baseman Matt Adams for an error. Jeff McNeil singled to put two men on.

Still with no outs in the inning, Nationals manager Davey Martinez relieved Rodney and turned to Daniel Hudson, who was able to induce a grounder back near the mound. Hudson tossed the ball to Adams at first for the out, but the runners moved up to second and third.

The Nats intentionally walked Pete Alonso to load the bases. Hudson worked J.D. Davis to an 0-2 count. Davis then got enough of an 84-mph fastball to drive it to right field for the sacrifice fly that scored Panik with the go-ahead run.

Gomes broke down the strategy against Davis.

"I think we got to come up and in him enough," Gomes said. "I feel like we just needed to switch his eye level. It was a decent pitch but just maybe enough to get the bat (on it). It's one of those things he just put it deep enough to score their run."

Seth Lugo (5-2), into his second inning of work, fired two strikeouts, including one against pinch-hitter Gerardo Parra, who looked at a called third strike in upper reaches of the zone to finish the game.

The Mets have won eight in a row and 15 of their last 16 outings. The Nats have now lost four of their last five series. Despite the acquisitions of three new bullpen pieces, the Nats have not been able to hold on to leads in the eighth and ninth innings in this series.

The Mets have a 10-5 record against the Nats this season, winning six straight in the series. Washington has not won here at Citi Field since April 7.

Are the Nats snakebit at Citi Field with late leads? Or is it just the case that the Mets are hot.

"Being on the receiving end of losing some of those games, yeah, it's tough," Gomes said. "It's not something that I can promise you that the eighth inning and ninth inning comes around we're thinking about. We're bringing in our guys that we want to close the games out. It's just been a little bit tough."

Martinez is also not buying that succumbing late here at Citi Field is a mental thing for his team.

"I don't think it's here," Martinez said. "You're looking at a Mets team that's surging right now. They're hitting home runs. We just got to make our pitches and keep battling. Like I said, I believe in the guys and we got to stay in the fight. That's all it takes. We got a lot of baseball left, I'll tell you that right now."

One of those new bullpen arms, veteran Hunter Strickland, came in and shut down the Mets with a 1-2-3 seventh inning that took him only nine pitches to complete. Was he a consideration in the fateful eighth? Martinez said no, citing Strickland's recent recovery from a right lat strain.

"Strickland, as we know, he's been down for four months, so I can't throw him back out there," Martinez said. "Fernando's our guy. He's been our eighth-inning guy. I had all the confidence in the world. He had three left at the bottom of the order, but he fell behind."

Fresh off another demoralizing loss, Martinez maintained he will not move Rodney or closer Sean Doolittle out of their eighth- and ninth-inning roles. Doolittle allowed four runs on six hits in Friday's 7-6 comeback loss. But the skipper did reveal he might make some adjustments with Hudson and Strickland now available.

"It all depends, we'll see. I got options now, which is nice," Martinez said. "But I got to be really careful with the guys we have, Strickland, not burning Hudson, and with Rodney. Rodney's done well. He had a bad outing today, but he's done well. I got confidence in all those guys."

Again, the Nats were unable to take advantage of a quality start from one of their heralded starters. Left-hander Patrick Corbin allowed only three hits. He did give up solo homers to Davis and Wilson Ramos, but lasted six innings, striking out eight and walking only one.

The Nats were unable to connect on a big inning against Mets starter Noah Syndergaard. Soto hit a dramatic two-run shot in the first inning to give his club a 2-0 lead. The Nats left five men on base in Syndergaard's seven innings, going 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. In the fourth inning, the Mets erased the lead with a pair of solo homers.

"These are just a bunch of good pitchers," Gomes explained. "They know how to eliminate the big innings. Both sides kind of did it. They responded well. But it's one of those things. Yeah, (if) we got a knock it would've been great because we would've opened the game up.

"It's not one of those things that we were going to look back and think that's what killed us. I think it's a collective game, and at the end of the day they got the win and whatever happened, we didn't do our job."