The New York Mets defeated the Washington Nationals, 7-3, on Friday night at Nationals Park to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Max Scherzer made his Mets debut and allowed three runs on on three hits over six innings while walking just one batter and striking out six.
Drew Smith, Seth Lugo and Sean Reid-Foley combined for three shutout innings in relief.
The Nationals opened the scoring in the second after Yadiel Hernandez lifted a sacrifice fly to center.
Jeff McNeil lined a solo home run over the right-field wall in the third to tie the game at one.
Robinson Cano put the Mets on top in the fourth with a two-run single to right. However, the Nationals answered back in the bottom half of the inning. Josh Bell crushed a two-run home run to right-center to tie the game at three.
The Mets regained the lead in the fifth after Starling Marte ripped a RBI single to left. Then, Marte extended the lead to 6-3 with a two-run single to left in the sixth.
McNeil drove in his second run of the game in the ninth with a RBI single to right to make it a four-run game.
McNeil finished with a three-hit night. Marte and Canha each collected two hits. Everyone in the starting lineup had at least a hit except for Francisco Lindor, who left the game in the fifth due to an injury. He was hit in the chin by a pitch, but X-Rays came back negative, the team announced after the game.
The Mets will try to take the first three games of this four-game series on Saturday night. First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].