The New York Mets opened a two game series against the Washington Nationals looking to stop their losing streak at three.  The Mets did just that winning tonight behind ace Johan Santana 7-3.   Santana was stellar, throwing 97 pitches in 7 innings, he gave up 2 runs on 7 hits, 1 walk, and 4 strike outs, and he also had some success at the plate hitting two doubles on the night.  The Nationals two runs came on the only misstep by Santana when he left a fastball over the plate giving up a two run double to pitcher Tim Redding.  Interesting note, up to this point the eight inning had belonged to Aaron Heilman, he was replaced tonight by Duaner Sanchez who tossed a scoreless frame, is this a sign of things to come? 

Brian Schneider returned to the line up after sitting out the past three games with a sore forearm that he injured in the second game against the Phillies.  Manager Willie Randolph looked to shake things up and did that by moving Ryan Church into the five hole and dropping Carlos Delgado to sixth in the line up.   This move seemed to benefit Carlos Beltran as he was 2-3 with a walk, single, and double  

The excitement happened in the sixth when Carlos Beltran started the inning off with a single, and scored on a ball hit by Ryan Church, who moved to third on a throwing error by Ryan Zimmerman.  Church would come in to score on a single by Angel Pagan who stole both second and third and then scored on Schneider’s groundout.  The Mets scored two late on a long single by Ryan Church.

The Mets and the Nats wrap things up tomorrow night. 

 Mets Blog