Feat of Clay, Holmes Dominates Nats to Snap Three Game Skid

Mets 8 Nationals 0 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)

Mets record: 10-19

Mets streak: Won 1

WP -Clay Holmes (3-2)

LP -Zack Littell (0-4)

Seat on the Korner: Clay Holmes

We select a Star of the Game and virtually invite him to take his Seat on the Korner — just as Ralph Kiner did on WOR-TV Channel 9 during the early days of the New York Mets.

Continuing the tradition of Rheingold Beer sponsoring Kiner’s Korner, this season every seat is proudly presented by The Main Event Restaurant & Sports Bar.

With locations in Plainview and Farmingdale, The Main Event features 80+ HD TVs, fresh daily seafood, and Black Angus certified steaks—so you never have to choose between great food and the big game.

Clay Holmes earned his seat next to Ralph as he continued to be a bright spot for the Mets on the mound. Holmes gave up three hits with one walk and six strikeouts in six scoreless innings as he lowered his ERA to a sparkling 1.75. Of the 12 non-strikeouts that Holmes recorded, 10 were ground outs.

Need to Know

• Mets are 6-10 at Citi this season.

• Before the game, the Mets placed Kodai Senga on the 15 day IL, retroactive to April 27th. RHP Christian Scott was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse. The Mets signed OF Austin Slater and claimed infielder Eric Wagamans off waivers and assigned him to Triple-A Syracuse.

• Juan Soto is dealing with forearm tightness and will continue to DH. An MRI showed no structural damage for Soto, who played through some pain over the weekend.

• Luis Robert Jr. was out of the lineup with lower back tightness.

• Bo Bichette homered on the first pitch of the game, the 7th lead off home run of his career. Bichette is now hitting .429 (6 for 14) with a home run and two runs batted in against Zack Littell.

Turning Point

The turning point came in the bottom of the fourth. The Mets had a 1-0 lead and had the bases loaded with one out and a struggling Marcus Semien (1 for 13 coming into the at bat) at the plate. With the count 1-2, Semien hit a bouncer to third that appeared to be an easy inning ending double play, but Nationals third baseman Jorbit Vivas had it go under his glove into left field as two runs scored to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.

The error opened the flood gates for a Mets team that was struggling to score runs. With runners on second and third, Carson Benge singled to center to drive in two more as the Mets took a 5-0 lead. Bo Bichette's sac fly made it 6-0 and Juan Soto capped off the rally with a two run homer to make it 8-0 as the Mets put seven on the board for their biggest inning of the season.

Three Keys

Juan Gone

Juan Soto hit his first home run and had his first runs batted in since he returned from his stint on the IL on April 1st. Soto has now reached base in all 14 games that he's played, the longest on-base streak of his career to begin a season. So far this season, Soto has a .407 OBP and a .460 slugging percentage for an .867 OPS. In 30 career games against his former team, Soto is slashing .302/.448/.567 with an OPS of 1.015

Carson Citi

Carson Benge had two more hits and is starting to heat up. Benge is hitting .368 (7 for 19) on the home stand with a double, HR and three runs batted in. With two hits, Benge has now had three mutli-hit games in his last four starts. Had only one multi-hit game through his first 19 starts.

Myers Recourse

Tobias Myers has become a bastion of consistency out of the bullpen. Myers relieved Clay Holmes and faced seven batters in two scoreless innings. The right hander, who was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers along with Freddy Peralta during the off season, did not allow a hit and walked only one in his 8th appearance of the season. Myers lowered his ERA to 2.33 (5 ER in 19.1 IP) and opposing batters are hitting .177 against him.