MacKenzie Gore followed up Josiah Gray’s start of the year with his own start of the year, leading the Nationals to a 4-1 win over the Mets. Washington is 8-8 in their past 16 games.
The Mets picked up their lone run in the third when Eduardo Escobar tripled to lead off the inning, on a do-or-die diving attempt that Lane Thomas couldn’t glove, before scoring on a two-out RBI single from Starling Marte.
In relief of Gore was Carl Edwards Jr. in the seventh, who yielded a pair of walks to start the inning and got just 1/3 into the inning, forcing Hunter Harvey to come on and get out of the one-out jam — which he did, before tossing a scoreless eighth. That was followed up by Kyle Finnegan’s fifth save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth.
The Nats scored four runs, but four was enough behind eight hits and a Jeimer Candelario seventh-inning homer. Keibert Ruiz led off the second inning with a walk before Dominic Smith put two in scoring position with nobody out thanks to double; Lane Thomas and CJ Abrams then promptly drove in both with RBI singles and it gave Washington a 2-0 second-inning lead.
Washington grabbed an insurance run in the eighth as Victor Robles walked before moving up to second on an errant throw and then stealing third base. He was then driven in by Alex Call’s RBI single.
Nats prepare for the series finale Thursday night.
Thursday @ 7:10 p.m. ET: RHP Trevor Williams vs. LHP Joey Lucchessi
