WASHINGTON — Nearing the end of an important two-week stretch of schedule, 13 consecutive games against their fellow members of the NL East, the immediate group against which they must measure themselves, the Mets are — as manager Buck Showalter would say — presenting well.
They handled Philadelphia with relative ease, taking series on back-to-back weekends, first in New York and then in Philly. In between, they split with Atlanta, which was fine. And now they get to beef up against the new cellar-dwellers: Washington.
The Mets’ 4-2 win on Tuesday, opening a three-game series that will conclude this run of intra-division action, featured another strong start from Carlos Carrasco and a huge hit from Jeff McNeil, a tying two-run double in the sixth.
The Mets are 11 games over .500 (21-10). That ties their high-water mark from last year (36-25 on June 16).
Carrasco lasted 6 2/3 innings and limited the Nationals (10-21) to two runs and seven hits. Maikel Franco had an RBI double in the third — which could have been part of a bigger inning if not for third-base coach Gary DiSarcina’s aggressive send of Yadiel Hernandez to try to get a second run on the play — and Riley Adams added a solo home run in the fourth.
With zero walks (to five strikeouts), Carrasco lowered his walks-per-nine-innings rate to 1.5, the lowest of his career and half of his 3.0 BB/9 last year.
That command of the strike zone is a big reason Carrasco has been so efficient. This was the fourth time in six starts that he averaged fewer than 13 pitches per inning.
In their first shot at the Nationals’ mediocre-at-best bullpen, the Mets (21-10) came roaring back, as they are wont to do. They rallied for three runs against Carl Edwards Jr., whom the Nats thrust into a high-leverage situation hours after calling him up from Triple-A.
Pete Alonso’s single, J.D. Davis’ single and Eduardo Escobar’s walk loaded the bases with one out for McNeil, the Mets’ leading hitter and No. 8 batter. He ripped a double down off the glove of first baseman Josh Bell and down the rightfield line. James McCann’s sacrifice fly to right put the Mets ahead.
Drew Smith recorded three outs in the seventh and eighth innings. That ran his scoreless streak to begin the season to 13 1/3 innings (over a dozen appearances).
Since Smith had walked Victor Robles, Juan Soto — among the very best lefthanded hitters in baseball — stepped to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. That spurred Showalter to call on lefthander Joely Rodriguez. He retired Soto on one pitch, inducing a pop-up to third baseman Eduardo Escobar in foul territory.
Nationals lefthander Patrick Corbin shut out the Mets for five innings, scattering three hits and four walks. He also struck out five batters.
The Mets had plenty of chances, including in the fourth, when they had two runners on and nobody out. They had two on again, this time with one out, in the fifth. Neither situation resulted in a run. They went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded six men on base against Corbin.
Davis, batting fifth because he has crushed Corbin in the past, crushed him again — but didn’t have anything to show for it. He smacked a 110-mph ground ball in the second, but it turned into an inning-ending double play. He had another rocket — 107 mph — in the fourth frame but it was directly at second baseman Cesar Hernandez for a lineout (which almost turned into another double play).
