ONE BAD INNING

Nationals 4, Mets 3 (NYM: 13-8, WAS: 8-15)

All in all, Oliver Perez had another good outing on Friday night in Washington. Unfortunately, he had a rough start, and a very bad first inning, and the Nationals made that stand up to beat the Mets, 4-3.

Perez gave up 3 runs in the first, on a 3-run homer by Austin Kearns. He then settled in to go 7 innings, giving up 4 runs after the Nationals tacked on another in the sixth, and striking out 9, while walking none (the best part of his line). Perez threw 120 pitches, 81 of which were strikes. It's just too bad the Mets couldn't get anything going on offense.

The Mets bats were pretty quiet against Matt Chico. Jose Reyes manufactured the Mets' first run, blooping a shot into right field, over the second baseman's head, then legging that into a double. He stole third, and scored on a not-so-deep sacrifice fly by Paul Lo Duca. The Mets are never out of a game because of what Reyes does on the basepaths. In the fourth, the Mets had a chance to do some damage, with the bases loaded and one out, and Jose Valentin grounded one up the middle that could have been a double play, but the pitcher deflected it, slowing it down, and the Mets got a run out of that.

Encouraging news came in David Wright's last at-bat in the 8th inning. Facing another hitless night, and with the Mets needing baserunners to rally, Wright lined one to right field for an opposite-field double, his fourth double of the season. Maybe that will get him going - he went opposite field, it was a solid shot...he also tagged the ball early on, but was robbed by Ryan Zimmerman at third. Wright came around to score, but the Mets didn't have enough to rally in the eighth. They also did nothing in the ninth against Washington closer Chad Cordero, who usually walks a tightrope, but got the Mets 1-2-3.

Saturday night the Mets send Tom Glavine against Jerome Williams - no way they can lose another game in this series to the Nationals.

Southwest Airlines johnnymets.blogspot.com Player of the Game: Austin Kearns delivered the big blow, with his 3-run homer in the first inning. It was his only hit on a 1-for-4 night, but those 3 RBI were huge.


TURNING TWO...HUNDRED: No double plays for the Mets on Friday night, so the count remains 28 double plays (through 21 games).

STEROIDS: Not sure about many of the details with this Mets clubhouse worker who pleaded guilty to running steroids. But only bad things can come out of this. The guy worked for the Mets from 1985-1995. Lots of names are going to come out of this...and I'm not going to like what I hear.

BEAT THE STREAK: No hits yet for Andruw Jones on Friday night. I'll be looking for that first thing in the morning. I'm not sure how Freddy Sanchez has been doing so far this year, but he's 5-for-10 in his career against Saturday's Reds starter Matt Belisle, so I'm going with Sanchez.