Abrams' late heroics not enough as Nats fall short of sweep (updated)

NEW YORK – It might have been too much to ask for the Nationals’ first three-game sweep since June 2021 and first three-game sweep on the road since August 2019.

After dominating performances in the first two games at Citi Field, going home with just a series win should be satisfactory for the last-place Nats. But, man, did they put up a fight for the sweep.

After a dramatic comeback to take the lead in the top of the eighth, the Nats bullpen had a rare meltdown in the bottom half of the inning, as they couldn’t complete the sweep with a 9-8 loss to the Mets in front of 20,726 stunned fans in Queens.

With an 8-7 lead thanks to CJ Abrams’ first career grand slam, Mason Thompson, who has been one of the best relievers in baseball but who also threw 28 pitches over three innings here two nights ago, entered the bottom of the eighth to try to get it to the ninth.

Thompson surrendered a leadoff single to Brandon Nimmo, who then stole second base. Starling Marte moved him up to third with a flyout to center and then back-to-back RBIs from Francisco Lindor on a double and Pete Alonso on a single brought home the tying and go-ahead runs.

"It's frustrating," Thompson said of his first blown save of the season. "Didn't get ahead of the guys. That's been the main focus all year. Just didn't get ahead of them tonight and I paid for it.”

Kyle Finnegan, who recorded the save last night, came in to record the last two outs.

“We had Mason up already," manager Davey Martinez said of the decision to go to Thompson again. "We wanted Mason ... that was the decision. Tied or ahead, it was Mason. He's been throwing the ball really well. And we want him against those righties. It just didn't happen tonight.”

“I think they were just more in an offensive mindset," the reliever said of the Mets' approach against him this time around. "I think when I was falling behind, not getting ahead, not putting them in a defensive mindset, I think it was easier for them to settle in and put together a better at-bat.”

For a brief moment in the middle of the eighth it had looked like Abrams had delivered the Nats the sweep.

Down 7-4 in the eighth, the rookie shortstop hit the grand slam against left-hander Brooks Raley to give the Nats a late 8-7 lead.

“I felt good," Abrams said. "I got a cutter down the middle, put a good swing on it. We played really well that game as a team. Did everything we can. We fought. And it didn't turn out how we wanted, but a good series win.”

After Erasmo Ramirez had given up three runs to the top of the Mets order in the sixth to make it 7-3, the Nationals put together their second – and biggest – rally of the night, thanks to some command issues by the Mets bullpen.

Tommy Hunter and Raley combined to hit three batters in the top of the eighth. Hunter hit the first two batters and then a dropped ball by Francisco Lindor loaded the bases for Luis García’s sacrifice fly to make it 7-4. Raley then entered and hit Victor Robles to load the bases for Abrams, who was 0-for-3 with a strikeout on the night leading up to the at-bat.

“It's awesome," Martinez said of the grand slam. "It's awesome to see him come through like that. And like I said, his teammates were I think a lot more excited than he was in the dugout. So it's a big moment for him, hopefully he keeps it going.”

At 22 years and 206 days old, Abrams became the youngest Nationals player to hit a grand slam since Ryan Zimmerman on April 22, 2007, against the Florida Marlins, also at 22 years and 206 days old.

“Excitement. To go ahead, it's always good," Abrams said of what he felt as he rounded the bases. "Looking at teammates' faces, everybody was jumping. It's just an exciting moment.”

The offense’s late-inning efforts to get Trevor Williams off the hook as he struggled to follow the two dominant pitching performances that preceded him this week.

After Josiah Gray pitched six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts on Tuesday and MacKenzie Gore struck out 10 and only allowed one run over six innings on Wednesday, whoever followed had big shoes to fill.

Williams isn’t as electric as Gray or Gore, but the right-hander signed to a two-year, $10 million deal has produced strong outings coming into tonight. Over his first four starts, he went 1-1 with a respectable 3.38 ERA and 1.078 WHIP, completing at least five innings each time out and allowing no more than three runs per start.

Williams struggled with two outs against his former team. After a perfect first inning on 10 pitches, he gave up back-to-back singles to set up Mark Canha’s sacrifice fly and an early 1-0 Mets lead, their first of the series.

He started the fourth with back-to-back strikeouts, with Daniel Vogelbach looking at a 90 mph fastball and Canha swinging at an 89 mph sinker. Then rookie Brett Baty hit a 77 mph curveball below the zone 400 feet to center field to double the Mets’ lead.

That was followed by back-to-back singles and a walk to set the stage for Francisco Lindor’s two-run double to right and a 4-1 deficit for the Nats.

Williams put himself in danger with two outs again in the fifth. Canha and Baty hit back-to-back singles, but the right-hander struck out Francisco Álvarez to end his outing. Williams finished five innings giving up four runs on nine hits and two walks with four strikeouts on 95 pitches, 62 strikes.

“Overall, body felt great, arm felt great. It's some missexecuted pitches," Williams said. "That's the beautiful thing about pitching and about baseball, we can always kind of move on and look forward to what went well and what didn't go well. It's just some missexecuted pitches that they did a good job of putting the ball in play today and forcing us to make plays. Unfortunately for us, we were on the wrong side of it.”

The Nationals' first rally attempted to bail Williams out of his second loss of the season, which ended up happening anyway. After Alex Call hit a home run leading off the third, the Nationals finally got to Mets starter Joey Lucchesi in the sixth.

Joey Meneses and Lane Thomas reached on singles, and both would come around to score on RBIs by pinch-hitter García (who was originally supposed to have the day off while Michael Chavis started at second base) and Victor Robles to cut it to 4-3.

This ended up being a wild and heartbreaking loss. But the Nationals can still hold their heads up high on their way home after a 4-2 road trip.

“We played really, really well," Martinez said. "We went down, we come back. CJ with a big grand slam. But, hey, they got nothing to be ashamed about. We played hard for this whole week. So let's go home and keep playing the way we're playing. It's been a great week. And I really believe that these guys are playing with a lot of energy. They believe in each other. They believe in themselves. And they're playing really well.”