John Matthews
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — One of DC’s sports teams kept hope alive, and another continued its comeback, but the Washington Wizards failed to complete the winning trifecta in a busy night of playoff action Tuesday.
The Wizards fell behind early in their Game 2 of their first round NBA playoff series against the Raptors, and never seriously challenged the East’s top seed, falling 130 – 119 in Toronto. The loss gave the Raptors a 2-0 edge in the best-of-seven series, which moves to Washington on Friday.
“We’re the team that’s in the hole, we’re the team that’s desperate, but we have a lot of confidence,” Wizards star John Wall said. “We’re not down on ourselves at all.”
Wall led the Wizards with 29 points in the loss.
The Washington Capitals know what it’s like to be down 2-0 in a playoff series. That’s the exact hole they made for themselves, falling behind after blowing 2-goal leads in consecutive games at home and losing to Columbus twice in overtime in their first round Stanley Cup playoff series with the Blue Jackets.
But hope springs eternal on the road for the Caps. Overtime called again Tuesday – twice, in fact – but this time, it was Washington that answered the call, with a 3-2 win on a goal by Lars Eller that found its way past Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky nine minutes into double overtime. The win allowed the Caps to keep hope within reach with a now 2-1 deficit in their best-of-seven set.
“It means a ton, a win like this after playing for that long,” Eller said. “I’m sure they feel a lot more tired in that room than we are feeling right now. It gives you a lot of energy. It’s going to be a battle again in Game 4.”
That game will be played in Columbus on Thursday night, with Game 5 set for Saturday at the Capital One arena in DC.
Like the Wizards and the Capitals, the Nationals were also on the road Tuesday, playing not for the playoffs, but pulling just as hard to stay within sight of the NL East-leading Mets. Thankfully for the Nats, they were playing at New York’s Citifield, and southpaw Gio Gonzalez was on the mound.
Simply put, Gio owns the Mets when he pitches in Queens.
Gonzalez pitched 5 1/3 innings – just over the minimum required to earn a win – but that’s all he and the Nats needed to pull off a 5-2 win over the Metropolitans, ensuring a series win and pulling the Nats to within four games of New York.
He now has a career record of 11 – 1 at Citifield, with a 1.78 ERA.
In his latest match, Gonzalez held the Mets to a pair of fifth inning runs, but managed to leave the game with a 3-2 lead. Four Washington relievers managed to go the rest of the way without giving up a run as the Nats added insurance runs in the seventh and eighth frames to seal the deal.
Trea Turner led the Washington offense, going 3 for 4 at the plate. Bryce Harper was held without a hit, but did manage a league-leading 18th RBI with a sacrifice fly that scored Michael A. Taylor in the third inning.
The Nats will have another chance to further close the gap with the Mets and go for a series sweep tonight at 7:10. Right-hander Tanner Roark (1-1, 3.50 ERA) will take on Mets left-hander Steven Matz (1-1, 3.77).
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