Mets beat Nationals after long delay as David Robertson is traded to Marlins – The Denver Post

The Mets played until nearly midnight Thursday, battling through a lightning delay and torrential downpours for nearly two hours at Citi Field. When they resumed play in a tie game in the bottom of the eighth with one out and the bases loaded against the Nationals’ Kyle Finnegan, Mark Canha gave them all they needed with a fly ball to right field that was deep enough to score Pete Alonso.

Alonso came sliding in just ahead of the tag to help the Mets (48-54) defeat the Nationals, 2-1.

However, in the end it mattered little. The Mets traded closer David Robertson during the ninth inning to the Miami Marlins for minor league infielder Marco Vargas and minor league catcher Ronald Hernandez. Brooks Raley came out to replace David Peterson and retired the side to convert his second save of the season. It could be his last for the Mets since this move positions the team as sellers ahead of the Tuesday trade deadline.

“We all know that he’s been unbelievable this year, so if we were going to go the selling route we knew that he would be one of the guys to go,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said of Robertson. “I hate to see guys leave and leave in the situation that this is, where we didn’t even come close to expectations.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow.”

The Mets have continued a frustrating pattern of taking steps forward, only to take more of them back, since the All-Star break. They’ve been no closer to reaching their goal of getting into the Wild Card mix, but this series offered some hope with the lowly Nationals in town for four games. And while the clubhouse has not necessarily given up hope on a turnaround, the players were all aware that this was coming.

“We know the facts and the facts are that we are not in a great spot at the time being,” Canha said after driving in the winning run. “It doesn’t help that the trade deadline is now instead of in two weeks, but we probably should have played better earlier if we wanted to be buyers instead of sellers.”

In the first game of the series, the Mets were reminded of how the trade deadline can impact the future of the club when one of Washington’s future stars bested right-hander Kodai Senga. Right-hander Josiah Gray, who was traded to the Nationals (43-60) in the deal for Max Scherzer two years ago, tossed six scoreless innings and limited the Mets to only two hits. The New Rochelle native walked three but got out of trouble each time.

Senga shut out the Nats for five innings before allowing a run in the sixth. Washington scraped to push one across and finally did, loading the bases with one out and scoring on a fly ball to left field. Senga then hit former Mets first baseman Dominic Smith to load them once more, but Dickerson popped out to end the inning.

“Earlier on in the outing I was able to get ahead and I thought I was going to be able to go deeper into the game,” Senga said. “But later on in the game I started to throw more balls and it ended up being six innings.”

Senga held the Nats to one earned run on two hits over six innings, walking three and striking out five before handing the game over to Peterson in the seventh.

Peterson (3-7) kept the Mets in the game with two scoreless innings. Nothing appeared amiss when Robertson was in the bullpen before the rain delay, but a monster storm appeared out of seemingly nowhere. With the Mets forced to wait an hour and 37 minutes before play resumed, Robertson figured he was out of action anyway, so it wasn’t a surprise when left-hander Brooks Raley took the mound in the ninth.

“You’re already warmed up and gotten fully hot then had an hour break and have to turn around and do it,” Robertson said. “It would be like pitching two games in a day which is not something you want to do, but something you have to do.”

But then manager Buck Showalter told Robertson something was in the works. Few in the dugout knew though some figured it out when Raley came on to close. Raley finished the game, then came in and saw that his teammate had been traded. He hugged Robertson and tried not to think about the fact that he could be next.

“It’s a bummer to give up great players like Dave,” Raley said.

Technically, the Mets are still in it. They have not been mathematically eliminated yet. But this move signals that the club is looking toward a future past 2023.

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