Wild, Wild, Wild, Wild Third Inning Pens Ugly 7-6 Loss in Washington
Nationals 7 Mets 6 (Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.)
Mets record: 73-87
Mets streak: Lost 2
WP - Gus Varland (2-2)
LP -Jonathan Pintaro (2-3) SV - Josiah Gray (1)
Seat on the Korner: Dylan Crews
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.
Tonight’s Seat on the Korner Star of the Game goes to Dylan Crews, who was a constant thorn in the Mets’ side from the moment he stepped into the batter’s box. Crews delivered the biggest blow with his 388-foot, seventh-inning home run that pushed the Nationals’ lead back to 7-5, but the long ball was only part of his night. He also drew a walk, stole two bases, and scored three of Washington’s seven runs. In a game where the Mets fought back from a disastrous third inning to get within one, Crews kept finding ways to make things happen—and ultimately played a major role in keeping the Nationals one step ahead.
Need to Know
The Mets are now 37-42 away from home.
The Mets have won four of their last seven games and nine of their last 15 on the road.
New York is in the midst of their final road trip of the season, a six-game trip (2-2) to Texas (2-1) and Washington D.C. (0-1)
The Mets have gone 24-13 against the Nationals since 2024...The Mets are 79-80 at Nationals Park, which opened in 2008.
New York finishes with three games against the NL East...They are 26-24 against the division .
Carson Benge home run in the 5th inning made him the 11th player in
franchise history to record 20 doubles, 20 home runs and 20 steals
in a single season.He also became the first rookie in Mets history to accomplish that feat.
Washington Nationals pitcher Andrew Alvarez made his fourth career start against the New York Mets...He has pitched to a 6.62 ERA (13 ER/17.2 IP) with 20 strikeouts.
Andrew Alvarez's streak of 13.0 consecutive scoreless innings over his last two starts, which was the sixth-longest active streak among MLB starter ended in the first inning tonight.
Jefry Yan made his first career start and 17th career appearance .
Yan has tossed 7.2 innings and allowed three runs with nine strikeouts in five games since his return from Triple-A on September 16.
It’s the final three games of the season! Francisco Lindor has been sitting at 299 home runs since September 12th. Juan Soto is three home runs and monster series away from a 30 home run season.
James Wood walked in the bottom of the second inning and became the first player in Major League history to hit 30 home runs, steal
20 bases and walk 100 times while playing in less than 140 games in a season. He became just the 10th player to accomplish the feat while playing in any number of games, joining Shohei Ohtani (2025), Juan Soto (2025), Paul Goldschmidt (2015), Bobby Abreu (2001, '04), HOF Jeff Bag-
well (1996-97, '99), HOF Chipper Jones (1999), Barry Bonds (1992-93, '95-'98), HOF Mike Schmidt (1974-75) and Jimmy Wynn (1969)
CJ Abrams and James Wood are just the fifth pair of teammates in MLB history to record 30 home runs, 30 doubles and 20 stolen bases in the same season, joining Francisco Lindor/José Ramírez (CLE, 2018), Carlos Beltrán/David Wright (NYM, 2007), Ken Griffey Jr./Alex Rodriguez (SEA, 1998) and Ellis Burks/Dante Bichette (COL, 1996).
Brett Baty extended his on-base streak to a career with his pinch hit in the 8th to a career high 18-games.Over that span he is hitting .414 (17-41)
with eight runs, five doubles, three homers, 16 RBI, eight walks.
A.J. Ewing was ejected by Umpire James Hoye for arguing this check-swing call. It was the first time Ewing has been ejected in his MLB career and it was the first time a Met was ejected this season.
The Mets are 39-40 since Green took the helm.
Turning Point
Just when the Mets appeared to have shaken off their disastrous third inning and were mounting a comeback, Dylan Crews had other ideas. After Bo Bichette and Carson Benge launched homers in the fifth to pull the Mets within a run at 6-5, the game suddenly felt like it was there for the taking. Then came the turning point. Facing Justin Hagenman to open the bottom of the seventh, Crews wasted no time, taking Hagenman’s second pitch and sending it 388 feet into the right-field stands for his 13th home run of the season. Just like that, the Nationals had some breathing room again, extending their lead to 7-5 and taking the air out of a Mets comeback that had been gathering serious momentum. After fighting their way back from a three-run deficit, the Mets suddenly found themselves chasing Washington once again.
Three Keys
Against The Wind.
Somehow, even with a stiff wind blowing in, the Mets managed to send two baseballs sailing over the fence in the fifth inning. Bo Bichette got things started with his 18th home run of the season, a missile that traveled an estimated 427 feet with an exit velocity of 108.2 mph.
Two batters later, Carson Benge followed suit, launching a drive 407 feet to right-center field. With the wind seemingly determined to keep everything in the ballpark, the Mets apparently took that as a challenge—and answered with back-to-back blasts that pulled them to within a run.
Turn the Page
The bottom of the third was about as ugly as an inning could get for the Mets—and it seemed like it would never end. It started innocently enough with Andrés Chaparro reaching on a single, but from there the wheels came completely off. A wild pitch moved Chaparro to second, Brady House followed with a double, and then another wild pitch allowed Chaparro to score. Yet another wild pitch brought House home, giving Washington the lead. Dylan Crews and CJ Abrams then walked, stole bases and generally ran wild, before Keibert Ruiz delivered an RBI single and Daylen Lile added a sacrifice fly. By the time Jorbit Vivas finally grounded into a force play to end the inning, the Nationals had pushed four runs across against Jonathan Pintaro and Cionel Perez on a bizarre combination of 4 wild pitches, walks, stolen bases and timely hitting. It was messy, it was maddening, and for the Mets, it was an inning they would probably like to turn the page in the scorebook altogether.
Beautiful Loser
With tonight’s loss to Washington, the Mets have officially clinched last place in the National League East, making 2026 just the eighth time in franchise history that New York has finished at the bottom of its division—and the first time in 24 years. The Mets previously finished last in the NL East in 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983 1993 and 2003. The three consecutive last-place finishes from 1977–79 came during one of the darkest stretches in franchise history, while the back-to-back last-place finishes in 1982 and 1983 preceded the arrival of the championship-caliber team that would emerge in 1984–86. Now, after more than two decades without finishing last, the Mets have unfortunately returned to the bottom of the NL East in 2026.
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