Morse hits grand slam, Harper also homers in victory over Mets
The Nationals brought their road magic back home to the District on Friday night.
After 10 games and 12 days away from Nationals Park, Washington shook off some early struggles against the New York Mets and belted their way to a 6-4 victory. Michael Morse hit a fourth-inning grand slam and rookie Bryce Harper added a two-run homer of his own to provide the offense.
Meanwhile, left-handed pitcher Ross Detwiler gave up two early runs before cruising through six solid innings. He gave up three runs on six hits with just one walk and a strikeout as his infield turned one ground ball after another into outs. Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman alone made four excellent plays behind Detwiler.
Mets starter Johan Santana set down the first nine Nats batters he faced and looked for a moment like he had found the form that has made him one of the sport’s best pitchers over the years ??– but had deserted him in recent weeks with 27 runs allowed in his last four starts. It didn’t last. Three consecutive singles to center by Jayson Werth, Bryce Harper and Zimmerman set up a mammoth opposite-field grand slam by Morse. His blast electrified the big crowd of 34,827, which demanded a curtain call. Morse popped out of the dugout and screamed as he pumped his fist in response.
“Last year I can remember in spring training they were just trying to find a position for him,” shortstop Ian Desmond said of Morse. “He was trying to make the team basically. Comes out and has a huge year last year, gets hurt [in spring training] and comes back right where he left off. It’s been a pretty good story for him so far.”
Morse, who wasn’t available to reporters afterward, was out of the lineup until June 2 with a strained lat muscle. He has hit safely in 30 of his last 32 games with four homers and 10 RBI in his last seven games.
Harper added to the lead when he ripped a two-out home run to right field in the fifth. That put Washington up 6-2. New York had taken an early lead on a two-run single by Daniel Murphy in the first inning before falling behind. An RBI ground out in the sixth by Ronny Cedeno trimmed the advantage to 6-3. Detwiler departed after six innings, and Craig Stammen gave up a solo homer in the seventh to new Mets catcher Kelly Shoppach.
“Just kind of focused down in the zone. The pitches were up, and the sinker wasn’t sinking,” Detwiler said of his first inning. “They got good wood on the ball.”
New York threatened in the eighth off Washington reliever Drew Storen, who needed a rebound effort after a rough performance in San Francisco on Tuesday. Things didn’t look great after a leadoff single by David Wright. But Zimmerman made his fifth fine play of the game at third base, fielding a chopper by Scott Hairston — who had doubled three times in the game — to begin a 5-4-3 double play. Storen ended the inning by inducing a routine ground out to second by Murphy.
In the ninth, closer Tyler Clippard walked Cedeno to begin the frame. But he struck out pinch hitter Ike Davis and Shoppach and got Ruben Tejada to fly out to left to end it.
The Nats improved to 74-45 — a season-best 29 games over .500 — and won for the ninth time in 12 games. They maintain the best record in baseball and their four-game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the National League East. Washington is 21-6 since July 21, but even in the midst of an honest-to-goodness pennant race, the players are not getting ahead of themselves yet.
“We still have to finish the regular season, so we’ve still got a ways to go,” Detwiler said. “Especially this series against the Mets. We got the Braves coming in [next week], but we can’t look forward. You start looking ahead, and you start losing games.”
