WASHINGTON -- At least the New York Mets are playing some meaningful games in July.
With their aces lined up for the series, the Mets flopped in the opener at Nationals Park in a battle between the top two teams in the National League East.
Despite retiring the final 14 batters he faced, Matt Harvey surrendered five runs (four earned) in seven innings and the Mets lost to the injury-depleted Washington Nationals 7-2 on Monday.
Harvey drove in the only two runs for the anemic offense as the Mets (48-45) fell three games behind Washington (50-41).
The Mets dropped to 26-56 against the Nationals during the five-year tenures of Sandy Alderson as general manager and Terry Collins as manager.
Harvey entered the start having tossed 13 scoreless innings against Washington this season and with a 0.68 ERA in six career starts vs. the Nats. However, he failed to come up big to open a series for which Collins purposely lined up his top three young arms -- Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard.
Harvey endured fielding letdowns behind him. Yunel Escobar opened the game’s scoring with a first-inning RBI single. With runners on first and second, Harvey then bounced a pitch to Clint Robinson that was blocked by catcher Anthony Recker. Escobar took off for second base and got into a rundown. He eventually was tagged out by first baseman Eric Campbell, but the Mets lost track of Bryce Harper, who scored on the play for a 2-0 lead.
Third baseman Daniel Murphy committed two errors in the game. The latter, on an errant throw in the third inning, allowed the Nats’ lead to swell to 5-0.
Harvey walked four batters. It marked his third straight outing issuing at least that many walks. Before this stretch, Harvey had exceeded three walks only once in his career -- in a five-walk game against the Atlanta Braves on Aug. 10, 2012.
As has been the case for the Mets throughout the season, the pitcher needed to provide his own run support. Harvey delivered a two-run single against Gio Gonzalez in the fourth inning. The bases-loaded hit came after a two-out walk to Anthony Recker with first base open.
Including that hit, the Mets are 4-for-72 with runners in scoring position in their past nine games.
Harvey now has five RBIs this season, matching the combined total from his first two years in the big leagues.
Struggling Alex Torres surrendered a two-run homer to Ian Desmond in the eighth.
The Nats played without Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth, Ryan Zimmerman and Denard Span -- all of whom are on the disabled list.
What’s next: DeGrom (9-6, 2.14 ERA) opposes rookie call-up Joe Ross (2-1, 2.66 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Ross, 22, limited the Pittsburgh Pirates to one run and struck out 11 in 7 1/3 innings on June 19 in his last major league outing. He is the younger brother of San Diego Padres right-hander Tyson Ross.
