Nationals 14, Mets 2: Brady House Grand Slam Buries New York

The lead

April 29, 2026 - New York - The Washington Nationals turned a rainy night at Citi Field into the loudest team performance on the AthX Engine board, beating the New York Mets 14-2 behind a seven-run fourth inning and a deep lineup that never let the Mets breathe.

The headline swing belonged to Brady House, who unloaded his first career grand slam in the fourth. The full story was even broader. Curtis Mead had four hits, scored four times, drove in two, and added a ninth-inning homer. James Wood drove in three and scored three. CJ Abrams had three hits and two RBI. Washington finished with 15 hits and set a season high in runs one night after being shut out by New York.

How the game turned

Washington did not wait for the game to settle. In the first inning, Abrams singled home Wood, and Jacob Young followed with a groundout to first that brought Curtis Mead home from third and made it 2-0. Young was out on the play, so the run was Mead's, not his. That early cushion mattered because Juan Soto answered against his former club in the third, driving a solo homer to left-center to cut the deficit to one.

The Mets needed a shutdown inning after Soto's homer. They got the opposite. In the fourth, Jacob Young walked, Daylen Lile singled him to third, and Joey Wiemer reached on an infield single to score Young and make it 3-1. Wood walked with the bases loaded. Mead was hit by a pitch to force in another run. Then House turned the inning from messy to decisive, launching a grand slam to left-center off Sean Manaea after David Peterson had already lost control of the inning.

That swing made it 9-1, and the rest of the night became a test of whether Washington would keep adding. It did. Abrams singled in another run in the sixth. Wood doubled home two in the seventh. Young added an RBI single. Mead finished the scoring with a solo homer in the ninth.

Pitching and matchup notes

Cade Cavalli had more traffic than the final score suggests, but he gave Washington exactly what a big offensive night needs: six complete innings and enough strikeouts to prevent crooked innings. Cavalli allowed two runs on eight hits, walked two, and struck out 10. MLB's game story noted that he became the first Nationals pitcher with 10 or more strikeouts in consecutive starts since Max Scherzer in 2020.

Peterson's return to the rotation went badly. He was charged with seven earned runs in 3 2/3 innings, walked three, and could not close the fourth. Manaea entered with the bases loaded and gave up the House grand slam, which turned a difficult inning into a blowout.

New York still had hits, finishing with 10, but the Mets went only 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Soto had three hits, including the homer and a double, and MJ Melendez drove in the other run. The rest of the lineup could not turn traffic into pressure.

Bats that changed the board

House's slam will be the clip, but Mead was Washington's most complete daily fantasy profile. He reached base in several ways, drove in runs in the fourth and ninth, and kept showing up in every Washington rally. Wood also changed the game without needing a homer. He walked with the bases loaded, doubled in two, scored three times, and kept the line moving in front of the middle of the order.

The Nationals' best inning was built on every kind of damage: singles, a walk, a hit batter, and one huge swing. That is how a team jumps from a normal road win to the top of a daily team leaderboard.

AthX Engine fantasy angle

Washington led the Apr. 29 AthX Engine team board with 29 team FP, the best total of the slate. Mead led Nationals hitters with 15 AthX Engine hitting FP, while House and Wood added the kind of RBI-heavy production that pushed Washington above every other team.

For AthX traders, this was a clean team signal because the output was not isolated to one star. A lineup that gets fantasy points from Mead, House, Wood, Abrams, and Young can move differently than a team that wins with one swing. AthX Engine daily scoring is separate from dynamic pricing, but this was the kind of full-lineup breakout that belongs on the watch list.

What comes next

Washington will try to carry the road offense into the series finale. New York has a bigger issue: the Mets are still getting moments from Soto, but the back of the rotation and the bullpen have left the lineup chasing too many games. A 14-run loss in the rain does not define a season, but it does make the next response feel heavier.

*Sources: MLB.com schedule, MLB Gameday, ESPN box score, CBS Sports/AP coverage, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*