Mets look to clean up errors, miscues after recent stretch of poor defensive performances

Tuesday's loss to the Nationals wasn't the cleanest game for the Mets . While New York's offense has been the reason for many of the team's losses this year, the 9-6 defeat to Washington in the second of their four-game series can be squarely put on the defense. Even more so than Nolan McLean 's ineffective outing .

It started in the second. With the Mets already up 5-0, Nationals slugger James Wood hit a booming shot toward the left-center field gap with the bases loaded. Rookie left fielder Nick Morabito , in his MLB debut, tracked it down and had a beat on it, but when he leapt, the ball hit off his glove and kicked away from him and Tyrone Taylor, who was backing up.

Taylor, however, did not immediately go for the ball, allowing Wood to pick up an inside-the-park grand slam. "He lost track of the baseball," manager Carlos Mendoza said of Taylor on that play. "He went after and didn’t know where the ball was.

Yeah, that’s a tough break there. " Morabito said the same thing but lamented he could not make the play. "He hit it pretty hard," Morabito said of Wood.