WASHINGTON _ The Mets found a stunning new low Tuesday night.
Up by six with three outs to go, the Mets lost to the Nationals, 11-10, after three pitchers combined to allow seven runs in the bottom of the ninth.
Edwin Diaz took the loss and the blown save, allowing a walk-off, three-run home run to Kurt Suzuki after a two-run double to Ryan Zimmerman. He inherited a bases-loaded, one-out mess created by Paul Sewald and Luis Avilan and did not record an out.
With the loss, the Mets (70-68) missed a chance to clinch what would have been their 12th series win out of 16 since the All-Star break. They were four games back of the Cubs for the second National League wild card spot entering play Tuesday. The Nats hold the first wild card, 8 { games ahead of the Mets.
The Nationals started helping the Mets as early as the third inning, when they had two on and no outs and let Jacob deGrom get out of the jam on just two pitches. Anthony Rendon grounded into a double play and Juan Soto lined out sharply to center.
Then came a six-inning Nats rally, during which Suzuki crushed a fly ball off the center-field wall. But Matt Adams, who was on first base after singling, managed to get only to second on the play. With the double play still in order, deGrom got another twin killing, this time from Gerardo Parra.
In the ninth, Adams dropped a foul pop from Todd Frazier, prolonging an at-bat that ended in a walk. When Tomas Nido sent a potential double-play grounder to shortstop, Trea Turner _ forgetting how many outs there were _ threw to first to record a single out.
Jeff McNeil (2 for 5, homer) made Washington pay with a two-run single. Pete Alonso followed with a homer, his 44th of the year, tied for most in the majors.
Max Scherzer (six innings, four runs) largely cruised but completely lost it briefly in the fourth. After giving up no hits through the opening three innings, Scherzer allowed four hits _ all on the first pitch of the at-bat _ and four runs in eight pitches to begin the fourth. The highlight: Joe Panik's two-run homer, his first long ball with the Mets.
Wilson Ramos' double tied the game and extended his hitting streak to 26 games, tied with David Wright (2006-07) for second-longest in Mets history. Moises Alou's 30-gamer in 2007 is the franchise record.
DeGrom finished with a line similar to Scherzer's: seven innings, four runs. He took the mound for the start of the eighth, but a two-run shot from Juan Soto ended his night.
Scherzer and deGrom starting against each other again offered a snapchat of the race for the NL Cy Young Award, which has lots of contenders and no obvious favorite.
Unless you ask Mickey Callaway. The Mets manager was convinced Tuesday afternoon that deGrom is the no-doubt leader.
"I mean, deGrom by far, hands down," Callaway said.
Ha, was he just saying that?
"No, I think that," Callaway said. "Nobody near as good.
"I get the benefit of seeing deGrom every single day. Maybe there's that bias. I know how hard he works, what he's able to do, what he goes through. I get to see it day in and day out. But if you look at the numbers, it's deGrom in my mind. He was deserving last year and at this point I feel like he's deserving this year."
For much of the season, the Cy Young looked like Hyun-Jin Ryu's to lose _ but then the Dodgers left-hander lost it, allowing seven runs in each of his past two starts.
Ryu still leads the NL with a 2.35 ERA, but Scherzer (2.60) and deGrom (2.76) aren't far behind. The Braves' Mike Soroka (2.53), Reds' Sonny Gray (2.80) and Nationals' Stephen Strasburg (3.47 with an NL-high 179 innings and 214 strikeouts) also remain very much in the running.
