Lindor Walks It Off as Mets Survive Washington's Sixth-Inning Explosion

Francisco Lindor singled to right in the ninth to score Pache and give the Mets a 5-4 walk-off win over Washington on August 15. The Nationals had turned a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 lead with three home runs, only to watch New York erase it all in the final frame.

Washington looked like the team that had this game figured out. Will Dion was untouchable through 4.1 innings — no hits, no earned runs, seven strikeouts — and the Nationals offense was building something real. Jared Young put New York up 2-0 in the first with a two-run double to left that scored Ewing and Lindor. But Washington answered in the fourth when Andres Chaparro launched a 380-foot homer to left, and then Brady House blew the game open in the sixth — a 380-foot shot of his own that scored Pinckney and Chaparro, flipping the scoreboard to WSH 4, NYM 2. House finished 1-for-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored. Chaparro went 1-for-2 with a homer, an RBI, and two runs scored. The Nationals had done the damage, and it looked like Sean Manaea was going to absorb a tough loss after surrendering 4 earned runs on 6 hits across 6.1 innings.

New York refused to go quietly. Carson Benge cut it to 4-3 immediately in the sixth with a 372-foot homer to right — a gut-punch response that, in hindsight, looks like the moment Washington's lead started feeling fragile. Jefry Yan then came on and was immaculate: 1.2 innings, no hits, no walks, three strikeouts. The Nationals needed their bullpen to match that energy, and for a while it held. But the ninth inning had other plans.

With the Mets trailing 4-3 heading into the bottom of the ninth, New York manufactured the most dramatic two-run sequence of the night. Francisco Alvarez doubled to left, scoring Baty and sending Pache to third — that single swing moved New York's win probability from 52% to 94%, a 42-point lurch that effectively ended Washington's night before Lindor even stepped in. Lindor then singled to right, Pache scored, and the Mets had their fifth run and the ballgame. Lindor finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored; Young also went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. The story of the night was a Washington team that outpitched and outhit New York for six innings and still walked away with nothing. Three home runs, a dominant start from Dion, and a clean inning from Orlando Ribalta — all of it erased in nine pitches in the ninth. That's a brutal loss to absorb.