Actually, that’s not true — not yet, anyway. But they did get on the right track on Monday night with a 6-2 win over Washington.
Mets starter Livan Hernandez improved to 6-5, submitting an economical seven innings (97 pitches) of five-hit ball and allowing two runs. Francisco Rodriguez pitched a perfect ninth with a strikeout.
In his first major league start, 26-year-old J.D. Martin lasted four innings, allowing five runs on eight hits with one strikeout.
New York raced out to a 5-0 lead by the end of the second inning, beginning with Daniel Murphy‘s RBI double in the top of the first. Ex-Brave Jeff Francoeur — who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs — followed up with a double of his own to plate Murphy.
In the top of the second, Angel Pagan extended the Mets’ lead to 3-0 with an RBI single before Luis Castillo followed up with a run-scoring single of his own. Murphy notched his second hit of the night — a single to left — to make it 5-0.
The Nats finally responded in the bottom of the fourth, when Josh Bard‘s double drove in Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns, but that was all the offense Washington would get. Bard, a member of the Red Sox in 2006, was the only member of the Nationals to register more than one hit.
Francoeur capped off the night with a ninth-inning solo shot.
