Brandon Nimmo’s bases-clearing double broke a scoreless deadlock and sparked a five-run fifth inning to lift the New York Mets to a 7-0 victory over the Washington Nationals on Thursday afternoon at Citi Field.
The win puts the finishing touches on a three-game sweep for the Mets, who improved to two games over .500 (47-45) since April 22 and temporarily moved into a playoff spot for the first time this season via the third and final NL Wild Card spot. They have won five of their last six games while pitching their first shutout of the season.
It was David Peterson who did the bulk of the work to achieve the rare feat for the struggling pitching staff. The southpaw went six scoreless innings while striking out five and allowing four hits with three walks.
Adam Ottavino nearly coughed the chance up by loading the bases with one out in the top of the ninth, but he rebounded to strike out James Wood and Jesse Winker to end the game.
While the Mets had plenty of trouble with Washington starter McKenzie Gore over the first four innings, they broke through in the bottom of the fifth.
With two outs and a runner on second, Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor drew walks to load the bases for Nimmo, who ripped a double into the left-center-field gap to bring home all three ducks on the pond.
The two-bagger continued Nimmo’s torrid stretch, which now includes 30 RBI over his last 23 games. The left fielder also entered Thursday afternoon with home runs in three straight games.
JD Martinez followed up with a single, taking second on the throw home, to make it 4-0 to drive Gore from the game. Pete Alonso singled Martinez home to cap off the big inning.
The Mets added two more in the bottom of the eighth behind four hits — Mark Vientos drove home Martinez with a single before Harrison Bader singled home Alonso.
