The Washington Nationals went into the ninth inning of Wednesday night's game with a 3-2 lead and a chance to keep themselves out of last place in the NL East, but by the end of the first half of the inning reliever Sean Burnett buried any chance of victory by giving up four runs to the New York Mets who ended up winning the game **.
Burnett gave up three straight singles to begin the ninth before finally getting Chin-lung Hu to fly out to Jayson Werth, but it was a sacrifice fly to score Jayson Bay to tie the game. Ike Davis then scored on a Josh Thole ground out and after walking Jose Reyes Burnett gave up a two-run double to Daniel Murphy. It took eight batters and four runs to get manager Jim Riggleman out of the dugout to hook Burnett and call in Drew Storen to finally get David Wright to strike out for the third out.
Offensively the Nationals three runs came from a Michael Morse sac fly in the fourth, a Rick Ankiel RBI double in the fifth and a Wilson Ramos sac fly in the eighth. Recently called up outfielder Roger Bernadina went 2-for-2 with a single and a double.
It was an abysmal performance by both team and manager and one that has finally placed the Nats in the cellar of the NL East. The Nationals are now fifth in the NL East with a 10-13 record.