Late Mets homer dooms Nats in 6-5 loss to open doubleheader

The Nationals opened their latest Sunday doubleheader with a concerning start from their top pitching prospect, an uplifting rally from their makeshift lineup, a game-deciding home run hit off a veteran reliever who has allowed too many of those this season and then a crazy play to end the game.

The end result: a 6-5 loss to the Mets that didn't have very many satisfying moments and left the Nationals needing to bounce back in tonight's game to salvage a doubleheader split.

Amed Rosario's solo homer off Joe Blanton in the top of the eighth proved the difference in this game, one in which rookie Erick Fedde left the Nationals in a 5-0 hole with a diminished fastball that had to raise some concerns in the home dugout.

The Nats did overcome Fedde's start, though, and rallied to tie the game by chipping away over the course of three innings.

With yet another makeshift lineup to account for injuries and the other game still to be played tonight, the Nationals were shut out for four innings by Tommy Milone, the onetime Nats prospect who has bounced around four different organizations in the last three years. They finally broke through in the fifth, though, getting singles from Rafael Bautista (promoted from Triple-A Syracuse this morning), Howie Kendrick and Wilmer Difo, knocking Milone from the game.

The Nationals got two more in the sixth, thanks in part to Alejandro De Aza's RBI double and Kendrick's sacrifice fly. Then they got two more on top of that in the seventh, thanks to Michael A. Taylor's RBI double and a sacrifice fly by De Aza that officially capped the rally that brought the Nats all the way back from a five-run deficit.

The game didn't remain tied for long, though. Blanton entered for the top of the eighth, and though he retired the first two batters he faced, he served up a homer to Rosario on an 0-2 pitch, the 10th home run the veteran reliever had allowed this season in 36 1/3 innings.

The Nationals nearly came back again in the bottom of the ninth, with Adam Lind delivering a two-out single off AJ Ramos to bring Daniel Murphy to the plate with a chance to beat his former team. Murphy sent a base hit to right-center, with Edwin Jackson (pinch-running for Lind) chugging around the bases. When the Mets outfield momentarily bobbled the ball, though, third base coach Bob Henley waved Jackson around. The New York relay, though, cut down Jackson at the plate for the final out of the game.

The Nationals challenged the call, claiming catcher Travis d'Arnaud blocked the plate, but a review in New York upheld the call, and the result remained a loss for the home team.

The earlier five-run deficit was the result of a ragged start from Fedde, summoned from Triple-A Syracuse as the 26th man for today's doubleheader.

From the outset, Fedde didn't look like his normal self. He let the game's first three batters reach safely, one via a hit-by-pitch, one via an Asdrúbal Cabrera three-run homer that put Fedde and his team in an early hole. Two innings later, Wilmer Flores also homered, giving the Mets a 5-0 lead and further putting a damper on Fedde's start.

Of more concern than the results, though, was Fedde's velocity, which was noticeably down all afternoon. In his first two major league starts, the right-hander's fastball averaged 94 mph, his changeup 87 mph. Today, he threw the majority of his pitches in the 87-91 mph range, nearly all of them registering as changeups on the scoreboard but pretty clearly diminished fastballs in actuality.

If the Nationals coaching and training staffs had reason to worry, though, Fedde (who had Tommy John surgery days before he was drafted in 2014) must have soothed their fears, because he was allowed to continue pitching throughout. And after those five early runs allowed, he posted three straight zeroes to end his day.

Fedde did have to wriggle his way out of jam in the top of the sixth after loading the bases with two outs. Though his pitch count already stood at 106, Shawn Kelley had only just begun warming in the bullpen minutes earlier, so Fedde was left on the mound to face Brandon Nimmo. He fell behind 3-0 in the count but then finished off Nimmo with three straight strikes -plate umpire Andy Fletcher's generous zone helped, as well - and thus walked off the mound having completed the sixth with his pitch count at 112.

Little could the Nationals have known it at the time, but Fedde's ability to keep the Mets from adding on proved quite large because they began to slowly chip away at the five-run deficit right after that and wound up coming all the way back to tie the game by the end of the seventh.