It may not mean much in the standings if the Braves hold on to win in Miami, but the Mets got back to winning ways on Tuesday night at Citi Field with a 4-2 victory over the Washington Nationals to end a three-game skid from a sweep at the hands of Atlanta.
Brandon Nimmo went 3-for-4 — a triple shy of the cycle — with a home run and three RBI to pace the Mets, who did all of their damage in consecutive innings between the second and fourth frames to pick up their 99th victory of the season.
The night also featured Jeff McNeil picking up a pair of hits to bolster his lead for the National League batting title with a .327 average.
“Should I sit him? Would you sit him?” Showalter rhetorically asked when presented the idea of sitting McNeil to preserve his top spot in the NL. “He’s playing… this isn’t as hard as people make it out to be.”
With two on and two outs in the second, Nimmo lined a double down the right-field line to score Mark Canha and Tomas Nido.
The Mets loaded the bases in the third, but only came away with one thanks to a sacrifice fly from Canha, which was sandwiched in between strikeouts by Daniel Vogelbach and Tyler Naquin.
In the fourth, Nimmo launched his 15th home run of the season, a solo shot, over the right-center field wall for his third RBI of the game.
The Mets’ offense managed to take the focus off another short Carlos Carrasco start, which did not help out his chances of being the No. 4 arm on the team’s postseason rotation.
For a third-straight start, he failed to go five innings, pitching four-plus while allowing two runs on five hits with three strikeouts and a walk.
He put a runner at third base in three of his first four innings but managed to escape each time before getting tagged by a Riley Adam two-run home run with no outs in the fifth to end his day.
“He gave us what he had,” Showalter said. “If it was a different situation we probably would have let him continue… Four solid innings.”
