WASHINGTON — Edwin Diaz runs hot and cold, without much in between.
After blowing three straight saves in July, the Mets closer went on a torrid stretch for six weeks in which he was close to untouchable. Don’t look now, but he’s in another rut.
On Monday he was entrusted a one-run lead in the ninth inning and mishandled it, sending the Mets to a gut-wrenching 4-3 loss to the Nationals.
The meltdown came in Diaz’s first appearance since blowing a save three days earlier against the Nationals. The Mets survived that calamity by rallying to win with four runs in the 10th inning.
This time there was no chance for redemption. Andrew Stevenson stroked a game-tying RBI single before Carter Kieboom’s grounder off Francisco Lindor’s glove won it. Diaz walked Alcides Escobar and Josh Bell as part of the implosion.
“I didn’t command my pitches the way I wanted to,” Diaz said. “I was throwing my slider low in the zone and I got hit. My fastball was going side to side today a little bit. I missed outside. I’ve got to command the fastball better to get good results.”
The Mets (69-69) won three of five in the series, but as a team that began the day trailing the Braves by 3 ½ games in the NL East they can hardly afford these types of giveaways.
Jeurys Familia, Brad Hand and Seth Lugo each pitched a scoreless inning of relief before Diaz exited the field after recording only one out.
Afterward, manager Luis Rojas reaffirmed his commitment to Diaz in the closer’s role.
“Edwin has done it for us all year,” Rojas said. “We’re not making drastic changes. I think the command is something that he can bounce back from. He had a little stretch in the middle of the season where he was struggling with his command a little bit and then he bounced back and started throwing more strikes.
“We have other guys throwing the ball well in the bullpen and they can come in for high-leverage situations … we trust our entire bullpen, and Edwin as well.”
In 55 appearances this season, Diaz has pitched to a 3.93 ERA with six blown saves in 34 opportunities. Diaz had recorded nine straight saves before Friday’s missed opportunity.
Trevor Williams incurred trouble most of the afternoon, but kept the Mets in the game by allowing two earned runs on 10 hits and two walks over five innings. The Nationals placed at least two runners on base in each of the innings pitched by the right-hander.
Pete Alonso’s 30th homer of the season, a blast leading off the sixth, gave the Mets a 3-2 lead against Patrick Corbin. It continued a surge for Alonso, who became the first player in franchise history to reach at least 30 homers twice in his first three seasons. He established a MLB rookie mark in 2019 by blasting 53 homers.
Alonso delivered a two-out RBI single in the first, after Lindor’s double, to get the Mets started. But the Mets missed an opportunity for further damage with Kevin Pillar’s strikeout, after Javier Baez had singled.
Baez and Pillar singled in succession to begin the fourth, but the Mets only produced one run, with McNeil hitting into a double play.
Williams surrendered three straight hits in the fourth, as the Nationals tied it 2-2. Luis Garcia, Corbin and Lane Thomas singled in succession for the run before Williams retired the next three batters. Thomas was a nuisance to the Mets throughout the five-game series, finishing 8-for-21 (.381) with two homers.
Escobar’s triple in the first led to the Nationals tying it 1-1 on Juan Soto’s ground out. Williams later walked Bell and surrendered a double to Yadiel Hernandez, but escaped the inning by striking out Kieboom.
The Mets will open a three-game set in Miami on Tuesday before heading home for the Subway Series. Last week, the Mets swept three games from the Marlins at Citi Field, (including the resumption of a suspended contest from April).
“It’s definitely down to a sprint,” James McCann said. “It’s not a marathon anymore. You have got to put blinders on and not let the outside noise, a game like today, snowball into anything else.”