Mets come back, then lose to Nationals on inside-the-park HR in the 11th

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on Sep 20, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — Just when it looked like the Mets might finally win a game in which they trailed after eight innings, the unthinkable happened.

Daylen Lile’s two-run inside-the-park home run in the top of the 11th proved to be the improbable tiebreaker in the Mets’ 5-3 loss to the Washington Nationals at Citi Field on Saturday.

With a runner at first base and one out, Lile drilled a line drive against Tyler Rogers off of the center-field wall. The ball caromed away from Cedric Mullins, and Lile hustled around the bases and slid home just in time to give the Nats a 5-3 lead.

The Mets, who are fighting to nail down the third and final National League wild-card spot, are now 0-67 in games in which they trailed after eight innings.

They were down, 3-0, in the eighth when pinch-hitter Mark Vientos’ two-out, two-run double against left-hander Jose A. Ferrer made it a 3-2 game.

That remained the score until the ninth, when Juan Soto then tied the game with an RBI single off of Ferrer.

The Mets had their chances to win it from there, as an intentional walk to Pete Alonso loaded the bases with one out.

But Ferrer struck out Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte to send the game to extra innings.

Edwin Diaz hurled a scoreless 10th, but the Mets failed to score in the bottom of the inning despite having runners at first and second with nobody out.

In the 11th, Soto struck out looking against PJ Poulin with a runner on second for the final out.

The late-inning drama followed an initial seven innings filled with miscues and missed opportunities by the Mets.

Already leading 1-0, the Nationals scored a pair of unearned runs against Mets rookie phenom Nolan McLean in the second.

The first scored when Riley Adams’ single bounded past Soto in right field and rolled to the wall, allowing Dylan Crews to score from base. Adams ended up at third base on Soto’s first error of the year.

The next batter, Brady House, reached safely on a chopper to Alonso, whose underhand toss to first base forced McLean to leap and miss the bag. That left runners at the corners with no outs.

McLean nearly escaped further trouble with back-to-back strikeouts, but C.J. Abrams batting, McLean sailed a 2-2 fastball to the backstop. The ball ricocheted all the way to Alonso, whose throw to the plate was not in time to beat Adams hustling home from third.

That mistake-filled frame accounted for the bulk of the damage against McLean, who allowed three runs (one earned) over five innings and struck out six.

The three runs were the most that McLean has allowed in seven career starts, while the five innings represented his shortest outing. His ERA rose ever so slightly from 1.19 to 1.27.

The Mets, meanwhile, had failed to capitalize on the Nationals’ mistakes.

They didn’t score during a third inning in which the Nationals committed back-to-back errors and failed to turn an easy inning-ending double play on a sliding catch by Nasim Nuñez, who threw wide of first when both baserunners had strayed far off their respective bags.

Washington starter Cade Cavalli, who entered with a 4.76 ERA, held the Mets scoreless for five innings.

The Mets were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position until Vientos broke through in the eighth.

In the ninth, Francisco Lindor was plunked in the left foot by a 93 mph slider, but he stayed in the game. Lindor has been playing through a broken pinky toe in his right foot that he suffered on a hit-by-pitch in June.

The Mets began Saturday with a two-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds, a three-game advantage over the Arizona Diamondbacks, and a four-game edge over the San Francisco Giants for the third wild-card spot.

The Reds, Diamondbacks and Giants had not completed their games on Saturday night by the time the Mets’ ended.

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