WASHINGTON — Off the bat of the Washington Nationals’ Ryan Raburn, the hit did not seem like much. But it was one of those sputtering bloops that had just enough energy to evade the defense.
Yoenis Cespedes, the Mets’ left fielder with a history of leg injuries, wanted to prove otherwise. He ran, dived, and came up without a catch, having trapped the ball after it hit the ground. Perhaps worst of all, he was limping.
“As I was running, I saw my chances dropping,” Cespedes said afterward.
In a taut pitchers’ duel between Steven Matz and Stephen Strasburg, a matchup of division rivals that devolved into a battle of bullpen misdoings, the winning play felt anticlimactic: a sinking walk-off single to end a 3-2 Mets loss that elicited a range of emotions, perhaps confusion most of all.