Nats split pair with Mets

NEW YORK — For seven long years, Joel Hanrahan waited for this opportunity, a chance to realize a boyhood dream and pitch in the major leagues.

The husky right-hander from Iowa probably figured it would have happened before now, but every time he thought he merited a promotion, someone else from his Class AAA pitching staff inevitably received the call ahead of him.

Through it all, Hanrahan never doubted whether his time would finally come.

“You can’t really question it because it’s going to happen when it happens,” he said. “That’s kind of the theory I’ve taken. I’ve prepared myself to be as ready as I can for when it happened. I thought I was all right today.”

Hanrahan was more than all right in his debut for the Washington Nationals. For 52/3 innings, the 25-year-old was the prince of New York, befuddling a crowd of 46,265 (not to mention the Mets) with a 95-mph fastball and hard breaking, off-speed pitches. That the Mets finally caught up to him and spoiled his shot at a win in his debut hardly mattered.

Hanrahan’s teammates rallied late to win for him, pulling off a 6-5 victory to make up for a 3-1 loss in the first half of the day-night doubleheader at stifling Shea. More important than either outcome, though, might have been the discovery of another young arm to add to Washington’s stable of pitchers.

Hanrahan was everything Nationals manager Manny Acta could have hoped for in his major league debut. He held the Mets to one hit until finally giving up a double to David Wright and a home run to Carlos Delgado in the sixth, while striking out seven.

“Pretty impressive,” Acta said. “We all knew he had that good arm. We saw it in spring training. He showed out there that if he can command that fastball, that changeup and that breaking ball that he has, he can be successful up here.”

The 13th different starting pitcher used by the Nationals this season — and the second to make his debut in three days — looked more like a seasoned veteran. He even recorded his first career hit with a third-inning triple that was historic in its own right.

No pitcher in franchise history had tripled in his first major league at-bat. Only three others have done it for another club since 1974, the most recent left-hander Chris Michalak, who was a teammate of Hanrahan’s at Class AAA Columbus.

“I was joking with someone that I was going to hit a home run,” Hanrahan said. “I’ll take the triple. I got a little tired, but that was fun.”

The surprising hit helped kickstart a three-run third in which Washington took the lead, putting its young starter in line for the win. He wound up with no decision after giving all three runs back on Wright’s RBI double and Delgado’s two-run homer on a 95-mph fastball.

The Nationals, though, made sure they pulled out the win, thanks to a three-run rally in the eighth that featured a run-scoring single by Ryan Langerhans and a two-run double by Ronnie Belliard off Pedro Feliciano.

Up 6-3, Washington’s bullpen nearly blew it. Jon Rauch (7-2) gave up two runs in the eighth, but Chad Cordero made it through the ninth unscathed to earn his 21st save and finish off a long day and night of baseball.

There weren’t many positives for the Nationals to take out of their matinee loss, a fairly nondescript game in which Mets right-hander Orlando Hernandez had his way for seven innings to give his team a chance to win late.

Tied 1-1 in the seventh, New York took the lead for good with a double, two singles and a walk against Washington reliever Saul Rivera (4-3).

If nothing else, though, the Nationals could take satisfaction out of Tim Redding’s solid pitching performance: one run in six innings and a season-high eight strikeouts.

Redding’s greatest contribution might have been his stamina. With the Washington bullpen overtaxed and another game yet to play before the day was complete, the right-hander knew he had to give his team quality innings. He didn’t quite match Mike Bacsik’s seven innings from Friday night, but he was just as effective.

“I was really hoping to try to get seven, like Bacsik did yesterday,” Redding said. “The biggest thing was: Don’t try to go out there and do too much too early and get into trouble and have to go through five or six different guys, especially with the game coming up in four hours.”

Redding’s gem was wasted, though, because of his teammates’ inability to produce against Hernandez (7-4). “El Duque” confounded the Nationals with his assortment of off-speed pitches, barely breaking a sweat during seven innings in which the bottom four spots of the Washington lineup went a collective 0-for-12 with eight strikeouts.

“When he’s on, it doesn’t matter who he’s facing,” Acta said. “He’s got about 10 pitches from five different arm angles. He was just on. We couldn’t do much against him.”