WASHINGTON – Jose Quintana appeared wide awake, but the rest of his Mets teammates might have been in an Independence Day slumber.
Following an 11:05 a.m. start at Nationals Park for the holiday, the Mets produced exactly one hit Thursday in a 1-0 loss to the Nationals in a game that lasted only 1 hour, 58 minutes.
It left the Mets with a split in the four-game series.
They will open another four-game set Friday in Pittsburgh.
The scoreless tied was snapped in the eighth on Jesse Winker’s pinch-hit homer against Adrian Houser. The right-hander had allowed only one earned run over his previous nine relief appearances for a 0.40 ERA.
The Mets received a gem from Quintana, who pitched seven scoreless innings in which he allowed four hits and walked three with a hit batter.
It marked the third time in four starts the left-hander pitched at least six innings and surrendered one earned run or less. Over that stretch, Quintana’s ERA has dropped from 5.29 to 4.22.
Jeff McNeil’s single in the third inning was the Mets’ only hit. The team’s only other base runner over that stretch was DJ Stewart, who walked in the second inning.
Jake Irvin raised his arms in excitement as he left the mound in the eighth. The right-hander allowed only two base runners over eight innings – one hit and one walk – and struck out eight over 99 pitches.
The Nationals didn’t have much better success against Quintana, but at least got runners into scoring position on multiple occasions.
In the first inning, Lane Thomas walked and stole second. In the third, Thomas singled and stole second and in the fifth, Riley Adams’ single and Jacob Young’s walk gave the Nationals a threat.
Quintana plunked Riley Adams to start the seventh, but retired the next three batters to complete his work for the day.
