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NEW YORK – For the first time since the 2022 Juan Soto blockbuster trade with the Padres, six players from that deal were on the field at the same time. Who would have thought back then it would be at Citi Field three years later?
With Soto now playing for the Mets, the former National could look across the field to see Josh Bell (who joined him in going to San Diego) back with the Nats and four of the five prospects they were traded for in MacKenize Gore, CJ Abrams, James Wood and Robert Hassell III.
And wouldn’t you know it, most of those pieces from one of the biggest trades in major league history played big roles in tonight’s game.
The outcome was not a welcomed sight for the Nats, who lost 5-4 in 10 innings to the National League-leading Mets in front of 38,472 fans in Queens.
And although it probably was a welcomed sight for the Nats to see Abrams and Gore as the catalysts early in the game, it was not so to see Jose A. Ferrer and Kyle Finnegan blow it late.
Protecting a 4-2 lead in the eighth, Jose A. Ferrer was one strike away from sending it to the ninth. Twice. But Soto had other plans.
After a two-out walk to Starling Marte, Ferrer got ahead 0-2 on Soto. On a third-pitch slider, Soto sent a liner toward Hassell, who had just been shifted there from center at the start of the inning. Hassell couldn’t make the diving catch, allowing Marte to make it a one-run game.
“It wasn't really that at-bat. It was the at-bat before, 0-2 to 4-2 to Marte," manager Davey Martinez said. "I mean, that set everything up. He tried to throw a slider. He just left it up and Juan does damage when the ball's up. He put good wood on the ball.
“In that particular moment there, when you're convicted to throw a pitch, you gotta throw it. And he just left it up.”
“I should have made the play," said Hassell. "That’s all I’ve got to say. … I should have made the play."
So on came Finnegan for the four-out save. But Pete Alonso sent his second pitch off the left field wall to score Soto and tie the game at 4-4. The only good news was that Wood threw out Alonso at second when the Mets first baseman tried to stretch it into a double and Finnegan pitched a clean ninth to send it to extras.
But with Abrams starting the 10th as the automatic runner, Wood, Nathaniel Lowe and Andrés Chaparro (recalled from Triple-A Rochester this afternoon and pinch-hitting for Josh Bell in the eighth) couldn’t score him.
That set up Jeff McNeil’s walk-off RBI double against Cole Henry in the bottom of the frame.
After a little reset by not starting Sunday's game (he had a pinch-hit opportunity late) and yesterday's off-day, Abrams entered tonight riding a 17-game slump, during which he only hit .143 with a .430 OPS and three extra-base hits. He matched those extra-base hits in his first three at-bats.
“It's nice to get those days off, but I wanted to play," he said. "So I'm in there and did my thing today.”
He sure did.
The 24-year-old shortstop led off the game by barely missing a home run, settling for a double. He would come around to score on Lowe’s two-run homer on the second pitch he saw from Mets right-hander Griffin Canning, the first baseman’s ninth homer of the season and first since May 16.
Abrams then hit a two-out RBI double to right in the second to give the Nats a 3-0 lead. The rally would have continued, or it perhaps could have been a two-run double, but third base coach Ricky Gutierrez sent José Tena from first, and he was easily thrown out at home to end the inning.
Soto, however, is not one to be outdone.
After striking out on three pitches in his first at-bat, Soto hit a 2-2 slider from Gore the opposite way for his 12th home run. And he stared down and had words for the pitcher all the way around the bases until he crossed home plate to cut the Nats’ lead to 3-2 after the third.
“We always go back and forth," Gore said of the exchange with Soto. "There's nothing bad or anything. And he got me. … He earned it.
“It was just some tough at-bats. He's super competitive, which is why people like him and like watching him play. I threw a bad slider and he hit it out.”
But Abrams wasn’t done yet.
In the fifth, he hit a first-pitch low-and-outside fastball to left-center field for his ninth home of the season, re-establishing the Nats’ two-run lead at 4-2. It was his first homer since May 18 in Baltimore, which was also the only other game in his career in which he hit three extra-base hits.
Abrams would be hit by a pitch in the seventh to reach base in his first four plate appearances. And just to add onto the theme, Wood reached base twice with a single and a walk.
“Just seeing pitches," Abrams said. "I talked to Davey before the game. We had a conversation about getting a good pitch to hit, and I did that tonight.”
Gore tried to take it from there.
The 26-year-old lefty continued his excellent start to the season with six strong innings of two-run ball.
Gore kept the Mets off-balance with his fastball and slider, but especially his curveball. He threw it 28 percent of the time while getting 11 offerings at it and inducing four whiffs. And he used it to record five of his six strikeouts as he regained the major league lead at 114.
“Just understanding the hitters and where you can attack them," he said. "When we needed to, we went and got those spots.”
The only extra-base hits off Gore were the Soto homer and a two-out double by Tyrone Taylor in the fourth; the other four hits off him were singles. The only other run scored against him was when Brandon Nimmo led off the second with a single, stole second base without a throw from Keibert Ruiz and scored when Jeff McNeil’s popup landed in no-man’s land in shallow right-center field.
And for the fourth time this season, Gore finished his outing without issuing a walk.
“I thought it was one of those days where we made pitches when we needed to," he said. "I don't think I was great. But like I said, I thought we made pitches when we needed to, and we did a nice job.”
With Gore at 89 pitches, Martinez turned to his bullpen to cover the final three innings.
Brad Lord put up a zero in the seventh. Ferrer and Finnegan couldn’t do the same in the eighth, nor Henry in the 10th. And so the Nats have now lost six of their last eight games.
“We could have scored a couple more runs to put them away. It didn't happen," Martinez said. "At any moment, those guys could put together some one-, two-, three-run innings, and that's what they did.”
“This one stings," Gore said. "But understand, like you said, we have a game tomorrow and flush this one and get ready to win a game tomorrow.”
“It was a fight," Abrams said. "The result wasn't where we wanted it to be. But like I said, keep our head up and tomorrow we'll do it.”
