Nationals 8, Mets 4 - Zach, attacked

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.