WASHINGTON — At least the Mets won’t have to see Kyle Schwarber’s face for another six weeks.
But the larger issue might be, which of these two teams will hold first place in the NL East when the Mets and Nationals reconvene on Aug. 10?
The Nationals are surging and clearly have to be considered a threat. Monday night they used two homers from Schwarber (and blasted five overall) in the Mets’ 8-4 loss at Nationals Park. The latest power display by Schwarber gave him seven homers in his last three games against the Mets.
The seven homers are the most in MLB history by one player in three straight regular-season games against an opponent.
Schwarber delivered three homers against the Mets on Father’s Day — after hitting two the previous night in Game 2 of a doubleheader — and tormented Jerad Eickhoff with blasts in the first and fifth innings Monday.
“He’s getting to balls right now that he hasn’t in the past,” Eickhoff said. “That is something you try to adjust to and try to pitch around.”
Schwarber’s 15 homers in June are a Nationals record for one month. He joined Barry Bonds (2001) and Sammy Sosa (1998) as the only players to hit 15 homers in a 17-game stretch.
“We’re trying everything, pitching him in, away, down, up, we’re bouncing balls,” manager Luis Rojas said. “It’s tough: you pitch around him and then you have Trea Turner, who hit a homer as well tonight. And then you have [Juan] Soto and then you have Josh Bell who can hit it out of the park easily. It’s a tough lineup.”
The Mets, who lost for the ninth time in 14 games, had their NL East lead on the Nationals sliced to three games. The Nationals won for the 14th time in 19 games, but will be tested over the next three weeks, with a brutal stretch of schedule that includes the Rays, Dodgers, Padres and Giants.
The Mets awoke with homers from Pete Alonso and Billy McKinney in the eighth that sliced their deficit to 5-4. They didn’t score their first run until the seventh, on Jeff McNeil’s RBI single.
“It’s going to happen for us,” McNeil said, referring to the offense. “It’s taking longer than we all want, but there is a sense of urgency that we have to start putting runs on the board. We hit the ball well tonight. It was a little bit late — too little too late — but we put some good swings on balls tonight.”
Ryan Zimmerman iced the game in the eighth with a three-run homer against Miguel Castro after Travis Blankenhorn cut in front of Francisco Lindor on the shift and committed two errors on Starlin Castro’s grounder that could have been an inning-ending double play. Blankenhorn booted the ball and then threw it away.
“It’s a ball that probably Francisco fields in that position and then Blankenhorn breaks to the bag and we turn the double play and get out of the inning,” Rojas said. “But it’s something that didn’t happen. I’m pretty sure we’re going to keep working on it so we execute it the next time.”
Paolo Espino, a 34-year-old reliever, was pressed into starting duty for the Nationals a day after Erick Fedde was placed on the injured list with an oblique strain. Espino held the Mets to five hits over five shutout innings.
Eickhoff was a mess early — surrendering homers to three of the first seven batters he faced — but settled down before allowing two later runs. Overall, the right-hander lasted six innings and allowed five earned runs on eight hits with one walk.
Schwarber, leading off the game for the Nationals, hit a towering blast into the upper deck in right. Turner smashed the next pitch into the seats behind the Mets bullpen in left field to give the Nationals a 2-0 lead. Soto followed with a shot off the fence in right-center, but was left stranded as Eickhoff retired the next three batters.
Gerardo Parra homered off the right-field foul pole leading off the second to put the Mets in a 3-0 hole. Eickhoff didn’t allow another run until the fifth, when Schwarber homered again. The Nationals got another run in the sixth on Castro’s RBI single.
