Mets Win In Extra Frames to Take Series Against Nationals

This was a big series. Coming off of two losses to the Marlins last weekend, the Mets needed to do something to justify staying in the NL East race. And they came through in grand fashion. I already took a look at their first win, so let's take a look at the rest of the series.

Game two in the series was a tough loss just because Pedro was on the mound. If there was one game I would have expected to take, it would have been this one. And Pedro did throw well. He gave them seven very solid innings, but he would have had to throw an awesome outing because the Mets only gave him two runs to work with. The Mets never got an extra base hit with the only offensive highlight going to Marlon Anderson, who went three for three.

The Mets got off to a nice start in the third game when Mike Cameron hit a solo homer in the first inning. Tom Glavine gave up the lead in the fourth, but the Mets got it back with three runs in the sixth. They added a run in the eighth on a Marlon Anderson sac. fly, and Tom Glavine walked away with his sixth win despite giving up nine hits in 5 2/3 innings of work. The pen really came through for them as they did in the first game as Heilman and Looper combined for 3 1/3 perfect innings.

In the fourth and final game this afternoon, once again it was the pen that did the job. After struggling at times this season, they really came through for the Mets. After Kris Benson gave the Mets seven great innings (six hits and two runs), Hernandez, Bell and Looper combined to throw four innings of one hit ball. The Nationals touched up Benson for two runs in the third to take a 2-1 lead. Mike Piazza tied it up in the fourth with a an RBI double, then he struck again to win it in eleventh. His RBI single was the difference as the Mets walked away with a 3-2 win.

While they came oh so close to a sweep, I'll definitely take 3 of 4. As it stands the Mets are tied with Philadelphia at nine games back. The Phillies are losing to Pittsburgh, so they could finally pull themselves out of the cellar.