James Wood\u2019s inside-the-park grand slam<\/a> in the second inning sent McLean spiraling and he never recovered. In his worst career start he surrendered nine runs, six of which were earned, on eight hits and two walks with a hit batter over 5 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings. <\/p>\nMcLean\u2019s ERA jumped from 2.92 to 3.57, but by working into the sixth he kept the Mets from further overextending a taxed bullpen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have my best stuff, but that is not an excuse for not going out there and competing better than I did,\u201d McLean said. \u201cThey made some good swings on good pitches, I would like to execute a little better, though.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bo Bichette\u2019s two homers in the first two innings had the Mets rolling with a 5-0 lead, but the good times soon ceased. <\/p>\n
Foster Griffin recovered over the next three innings and the Nationals bullpen handled the rest.<\/p>\n
Nick Morabito started in left field in his major league debut and finished 0-for-3. <\/p>\n
James Wood dives safely into home for a inside-the-park grand slam homer during the second inning of the Mets\u2019 9-6 loss to the Nationals on May 19, 2026 in Washington. Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Defensively he watched Wood\u2019s shot hit his glove and then bound from the fence \u2014 as Tyrone Taylor converged with him \u2014 leading to the grand slam that shifted the game\u2019s momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Wood] hit it pretty hard and I went back and just missed it,\u201d Morabito said. \u201cIt hit the palm of my hand, and I should have had it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A night earlier the Mets scored 10 runs in the 12th inning to rally for a 16-7 victory. There were plenty of noteworthy offensive performances. <\/p>\n
Nick Morabito (left) and Tyrone Taylor are unable to catch James Woods\u2019 fly ball that ended up turning into an inside-the-park grand slam during the second inning of the Mets\u2019 loss to the Nationals. Getty Images<\/p>\n
This night was quieter, with Bichette \u2014 who has underwhelmed during his nearly two months with the club \u2014 finally showing a spark before Juan Soto homered in the seventh.<\/p>\n
Bichette\u2019s first homer of the night gave the Mets a 2-0 lead in the first inning following Carson Benge\u2019s leadoff single. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Marcus Semien brought in the inning\u2019s third run with a sacrifice fly after Soto and Mark Vientos reached.<\/p>\n
After Benge singled with two outs in the second, Bichette smashed his third homer in two games, extending the Mets lead to 5-0. <\/p>\n
The blast was Bichette\u2019s fifth this season and gave him the first multihomer game of his Mets career.<\/p>\n
Nolan Mclean allowed six earned runs and suffered the defeat in the Mets\u2019 loss to the Nationals. Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
But most of the Mets lead disappeared with two outs in the second inning. McLean allowed a double to Jorbit Vivas and plunked Drew Millas on an 0-2 pitch. <\/p>\n
After Nasim Nu\u00f1ez singled to load the bases, Wood cleared them (the second inside-the-park grand slam in Nationals history).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 0-2 hit-by-pitch was kind of like the killer there,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said. \u201cIt ended up costing a lot in that inning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bo Bichette belts a two-run homer in the first inning of the Mets\u2019 loss to the Nationals. AP<\/p>\n
McLean\u2019s troubles were just starting. Jos\u00e9 Tena homered leading off the bottom of the third to tie it 5-5 before CJ Abrams walked and Daylen Lile singled. <\/p>\n
Luis Torrens\u2019 passed ball gave the Nationals the lead and Vivas\u2019 sacrifice fly put the Mets in a 7-5 hole.<\/p>\n
Sloppy defense by the Mets in the fourth widened the gulf. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Semien booted Tena\u2019s grounder and then unleashed an errant throw to second, putting runners on second and third. Abrams followed with a grounder to Bichette, who fired home. <\/p>\n
The ball hit off Torrens\u2019 glove for an error on the catcher. Two runs scored on the play, extending the Nationals lead to 9-5.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot good,\u201d Mendoza said of the team\u2019s defensive play. \u201cThe past four days or so we are making errors on routine plays. We are a good team defensively, we have shown that, but we are going through a stretch right now where you have got to clean it up.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The perfect storm conspired to deprive the Mets of what should have been a sure victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,88,134,4,415,61,2517,185,414,71,4222],"class_list":["post-703684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-nationals","tag-baseball","tag-bo-bichette","tag-juan-soto","tag-mlb","tag-nationals","tag-new-york-mets","tag-nolan-mclean","tag-sports","tag-washington","tag-washington-nationals","tag-washingtonnationals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116604992464650795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}