QUEENS, NY — Jeff McNeil’s first-inning three-run home run sparked the Mets to a 4-3 victory over the Washington Nationals on Thursday afternoon at Citi Field to complete a three-game sweep of their NL East rivals.
Brandon Nimmo added his third home run in the last two games in the fifth inning, as the Mets (45-24) have won six straight games.
The win came with a damper, though, as starting pitcher Kodai Senga exited what was developing into a brilliant outing after 5.2 scoreless innings in which he allowed just one hit, one walk, and one strikeout due to a right hamstring strain while covering first base that will land him on the injured list.
He will undergo an MRI to discover the severity of it on Friday.
“It’s hard for me to speculate [about how bad it’s going to be],” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “But I do know he’s going to be down.”
After Jose Castillo and Huascar Brazoban combined for 2.1 shutout innings, Ryne Stanek and Edwin Diaz nearly coughed up a 4-0 lead, but the closer managed to escape a second-and-third, one-out jam up a run by coaxing three straight outs.
McNeil came through with two outs and two men on in the first inning to put a crooked number on Mike Soroka and the Nationals. On the second straight inside fastball he saw to start the at-bat, the red-hot lefty turned on it and snuck it just over the right-field fence inside the foul pole.
After hitting just two home runs in his first 27 games of the season, he now has five in his last 11.
Nimmo made it 4-0 in the fifth when he turned on another inside fastball from Soroka off the right-field foul pole. Like McNeil, Nimmo has heated up with the weather, with five home runs and 10 RBI in his last 16 games.
“You get on some hot streaks and ride them as long as you can,” Nimmo said. “Swinging the bat well right now, and we love it. Every run counted there, we needed every run.”
Senga was sublime from the jump. After allowing a one-out single to James Wood in the top of the first, he retired the next 13 batters in a row, which included a stretch between the third and fourth innings that saw him strike out four of the six men he faced — three of which came on the forkball.
But his day ended early with two outs in the sixth when he injured his right hamstring while landing on the first-base bag after a high throw from Pete Alonso while covering on a CJ Abrams grounder.
“I still feel awful because for me, I try to make a baseball play, trying to make a play for my pitcher. I tried to make the best throw taht I could and it just sucks,” Alonso said. “It sucks to be involved in that. Senga is one of our guys here and it sucks. You hate to see anyone go down… I wish it wouldn’t have turned out like that.”
After reliever Jose Castillo allowed a two-out single to James Wood, Tyrone Taylor robbed Luis Garcia of extra bases and kept Washington off the board with a diving catch at the warning track in right-center field.
Stanek ran into immediate trouble trying to close the Nationals out in the ninth, allowing lead-off singles to Abrams, Wood, and Garcia to make it a three-run game and force manager Carlos Mendoza to call in closer Edwin Diaz with no outs and runners on the corners.
Diaz walked Nathaniel Lowe on four pitches, then allowed an RBI single to Josh Bell to make it a two-run game. After getting Alex Call to pop out to short, Washington’s third run came in on a passed ball, but Diaz buckled down to get Jose Tena and Keibert Ruiz to ground out to end it.
