Mets 3 – Nationals 1
WASHINGTON – When Michael Tucker walked to the plate for his only at-bat yesterday, he had a simple goal. He wanted to “get a good pitch and not miss it.”
He got his pitch, and didn’t need another.
“Fortunately for me,” Tucker said, “I didn’t miss the pitch that he threw me.”
Tucker took the one offering thrown to him by Nationals reliever Jon Rauch, and sent it over the right-field wall for a solo home run. Not only was this Tucker’s first homer as a Met, but also it was the journeyman’s first homer since July 17 of last season.
Tucker’s shot put the Mets up a run yesterday and was the difference in their 3-1 victory over Washington. It’s the fourth series win in the last five for the Mets, who are 26 games over .500 and heading to Philadelphia today with a 15-game bulge in the NL East.
Tucker will head there, too, having joined the Mets last Tuesday when Cliff Floyd went on the disabled list. The 35-year-old had been with Triple-A Norfolk. And until the bottom of the seventh inning, he had been on the bench for the series finale at RFK Stadium.
Tucker entered the game when Willie Randolph called for a double switch; the Mets manager brought reliever Chad Bradford into the game and put Tucker in left field in place of Ricky Ledee.
“Every once in a while, you get lucky. That’s why I’m a genius,” Randolph said, jokingly. “But Tucker came up with a big, big knock for us.”
Tucker hit the homer against the team he was with in spring training. The Nationals let him go on March 30, and the Mets let him in on April 26, signing him to a minor-league deal and sending him to Norfolk.
With the Tides, Tucker hit .265 with six homers and 33 RBIs. He was 2-for-9 with two RBIs with the Mets before yesterday’s home run.
“For him and for our team, that was huge,” said closer Billy Wagner, who picked up his 28th save. “I know he wanted to prove something after being in camp with the Nationals.”
Tucker, meanwhile, downplayed the fact that he homered against Washington.
“It’s one of those things where you can’t hold any grudges,” he said. “It’s business.”
Alfonso Soriano’s solo homer in the fourth inning gave the Nationals a 1-0 lead. The Mets tied it in the seventh with two outs when David Wright stole second base and went to third when catcher Brian Schneider’s throw went into center. It was a good move by Wright to steal, putting the Mets in a position where one hit or an error would score a run.
It turned out to be the latter. Jose Valentin hit a routine grounder to second base. Former Met Marlon Anderson mishandled it, then threw wide of Nick Johnson at first. Valentin reached on the error, and Wright scored to make it 1-1.
Washington nearly went back ahead, though, loading the bases with two outs in the seventh and Soriano at bat against Bradford. Soriano hit a grounder up the middle, but Valentin ranged to his right and short-hopped the throw to first to nail Soriano.
“Unbelievable,” Carlos Delgado said.
The next inning – and nearly 13 months after he had done it last – Tucker went deep.
