May 20, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Zach Thornton (49) pitches in his major league debut against the Washington Nationals during the first inning at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
The Mets continued the youth movement tonight, giving another young player their major league debut. However, the highest scoring team in baseball continued to score a lot of runs and the Mets’ bullpen couldn’t keep the club in the game. The Nationals beat the Mets 8-4, and while there were some valiant attempts at comebacks—mostly from Juan Soto—the Mets looked flat for the second straight game.
Zach Thornton made his big league debut tonight, and the 24-year old was greeted rudely in his first inning of work. After retiring the first batter of the game, Curtis Mead singled to right-field. Andrés Chaparro drew a walk that featured at least one challenge-able call that the Mets didn’t pull the trigger on, which made sense with one out in the first inning. However, CJ Abrams turned on flat cutter and all of a sudden it was 3-0 Nationals.
The Mets began to claw back in the top of the second when Mark Vientos led off the inning with a double against Nats’ starter Zack Littell. Vientos would eventually score on a Brett Baty single, but the Washington lead returned to three when Keibert Ruiz singled in Nasim Nuñez who had walked, stole second, and advanced to third on a bad throw from Hayden Senger.
The Mets would add their second run of the day on a towering Juan Soto home run that hit off the facade in right field to make it 4-2. From there, Thornton settled in, having perfect third and fourth innings, but was pulled with one out in the fifth after Ruiz doubled to left field. Austin Warren was first out of the ‘pen and, assisted by Carson Benge’s fantastic arm, was able to get through to inning when Benge threw a one-hopper from right field to nail Ruiz at the plate.
Warren, who has been fantastic for the Mets, had a less than effective sixth inning, allowing back to back singles by Abrams and Dylan Crews, followed by a Daylen Lile sac fly, and the three-run lead was back. Jacob Young would double, pushing Crews to third, and that would do it for Warren. Craig Kimbrel was up next, and a successful sacrifice bunt scored Crews and it was 6-2 Washington.
Andrew Alvarez pitched multiple innings of relief for the Nats, and looked strong until the eighth, when Bo Bichette singled with two outs, and scored when Soto hit his second 400+ ft. home run to bring the Nats’ lead to just two. But after that home run, Alvarez settled down, looking impressive in his long relief role.
Kimbrel got the first seven batters he faced out, making his performance tonight officially the longest of his career. It came apart in the bottom of the eight when Kimbrel allowed a double to Lile and then a two-run shot to Young, putting Washington up 8-4.
The Mets sent up a trio of righties to attempt to get something going in the ninth, but Alvarez collected a four-inning save by striking out pinch hitters Nick Morabito, Tyrone Taylor, and inducing a line-out from starting second baseman Marcus Semien to end the game.
The Mets close out the series tomorrow in a matinee where David Peterson will pitch against Cade Cavalli and the team will attempt to split the series.
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Win Probability Added
What’s WPA?
Big Mets winner: Juan Soto, +9.0% WPA
Big Mets loser: Zach Thorton, -23.0% WPA
Mets pitchers: -31.0% WPA
Mets hitters: -19.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Juan Soto’s first home run of the game, 7.7$ WPA
Teh sux0rest play: CJ Abrams’s three-run dinger, -21.1% WPA
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