The Mets couldn't hold a late two-run lead, but timely pitching in extra innings kept them alive before scoring 10 runs in the top half of the 12th for a 16-7 win over the Nationals in Washington on Monday.

The top of the 12th was the highest-scoring single inning of extra-inning baseball for a National League team in 107 years. For the Mets, it meant a sixth win in seven games and a third straight to see them improve to 21-26 on the season. Washington fell to 23-25.

Here are the takeaways...

- The Mets entered the game with the 11th-worst average with RISP (.242) and sixth-worst OPS with RISP (.679). They went down swinging in their first two chances in the first inning as Mark Vientos flailed at a 0-2 low-and-away breaking pitch and Brett Baty fanned on a 1-2 fastball above the zone.

Luis Torrens came through pulling a double down the third base line to score Tyrone Taylor from third on a 3-2 sweeper that stayed over the plate.

Bo Bichette got a chance with runners on first and second and nobody down in the fifth against Nats lefty reliever PJ Poulin, but hit a can of corn to right. Torrens and Carson Benge were aggressive to move up to put two in scoring position for Juan Soto, who shot the first pitch through the left side of the infield for a two-RBI single to give the Mets a 4-3 lead.

Bichette got the instant RBI chance to start the 10th and lined one down the line in right that James Wood tracked down in foul ground, advancing the runner to third. After Soto was walked intentionally, Vientos sharply hit into a 4-6-3 inning-ender.

Baty got the chance in the 11th with Vidal Brujan in as a pinch-runner at second, but his sharp liner to center only advanced the runner to third. Marcus Semien, 0-for-4 with two strikeouts to that point, plated the run with a sac fly to the wall in the left field corner to give them a one-run edge.

Hayden Senger, batting for the first time and Taylor on second in the 12th, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt and Benge bounced an infield hit off pitcher Paxton Schultz's glove (98 mph off the bat) for the go-ahead RBI. After a single and a Soto intentional walk, Brujan got his first at-bat with the bases loaded and dropped down a bunt that just found the grass for an RBI and his first hit as a Met. Baty lined a 3-2 pitch through the right side of the infield to plate two, and with hustle put two in scoring position. Semien added an RBI single to right to make it a five-run inning.

Nats manager Blake Butera then tried to bring in a position player to wave the white flag, but the umpires, after first stopping him from doing so, had to check the rules with the replay center before allowing Jorbit Vivas in. A.J. Ewing greeted the position player with an RBI single to left on the first pitch. Against Vivas: Taylor flied out to the warning track in left, Senger loaded them with a single to right, Benge clobbered a ball to center to plate two more runs, Bichette scored two more with a double, and Soto popped out in foul ground.

The Mets finished the day 9-for-20 with RISP and eight men left on base. Of course, with four hits in six chances against Vivas, who started the day as Washington's shortstop.

Meanwhile, the Nats, baseball’s highest-scoring team, who somehow entered batting .243 with RISP, went 4-for-16 in scoring chances with 19 left on base.

- Baty made up for his strikeout in his first at-bat, taking the first pitch of the fourth inning and hitting it a ton: 451 feet to center field (111.2 mph) for a solo home run off Nats' starter Jake Irvin. He finished 2-for-6 with three strikeouts.

- Bichette, who was hitless and got picked off at first after leading off the third with a walk, broke out of his homer slump by clobbering a high, hanging Parker curveball 409 feet into the Mets' bullpen in left. It was his first extra-base hit in 71 at-bats since his last homer 17 games ago against the Nats. He finished 3-for-6 with a walk, adding a 12th-inning single and then later a double.

- Austin Warren was first out of the Mets’ bullpen that was handed a lead and delivered a 1-2-3 fifth and got around a leadoff walk for a clean sixth, lowering his ERA to 0.61 on the year.

Things didn’t start well for Brooks Raley in the seventh: A sweeper over the plate that Wood went for a double into the right field corner and back-to-back walks put the go-ahead run on first and brought pitching coach Justin Willard to the mound. Raley traded two outs for a run, with CJ Abrams lining a sac fly line to the edge of the track in center and Daylen Lile popping out on the infield.

Tobias Myers got the call to put out the fire, and after issuing the Mets’ seventh walk of the night to load the bases, he blew a high fastball past Jose Tena to preserve the lead. Myers couldn't hold the lead in the eighth: Wood smoked a two-out single to right and came around to score when b got a fastball in and shot it into the right-center gap for a game-tying double.

Luke Weaver, looking to extend the game in the ninth, allowed a single through the right side of the infield to Abrams and hit Joey Wiemer to put two on with one out. But a strikeout and a pop-out on the infield sent the game to the 10th.

Huascar Brazobán cleanly fielded the bunt to start the 10th and got the out at first. After walking Wood to put runners on the corners, Carlos Mendoza came out to talk strategy. Brazobán would walk the bases loaded, forcing the infield to come in against the speedy Nasim Nuñez. But the Mets escaped: Vientos fielded a hard-hit grounder to cut down the runner at the plate and Brazobán got Abrams to swing through at a pitch off the outside corner to leave the bases loaded.

It would be Brazobán, who threw just 11 pitches in the eventful previous inning, got burned by soft contact, a comebacker advanced the runner and an infield single tied the game. After a fielder's choice on a heads-up play by Baty cut down the runner at second, before Vivas ripped a double to put two in scoring position. A bouncer to Brujan at short ended the threat.

Craig Kimbrel had to wait around a while to pitch the bottom of the 12th and allowed an RBI single to Wood and then a two-out double, but got the final out after a breezy
4:08, stranding two more in scoring position for good measure.

- Christian Scott, who tossed a 13-pitch, 1-2-3, first inning, struck out the first two batters in the second before drilling Jacob Young with a 2-2 93 mph heater in the ribs, forcing Washington’s center fielder and Scott's teammate at Florida out of the game. Scott would for that mistake: He left a 0-2 cutter over the plate to Tena, who grooved it for an RBI double into the left-center gap, walked Vivas, and, after a mound visit, gave up an RBI single to center when Tena. A third strikeout ended the frame with New York down 2-1.

Scott got stung with two down again in the third, after a one-out single and a two-out walk, the starter left a heater up and away to Wiemer, who slammed it for an RBI double to right. Scott would strand two in scoring position (thanks to Lile tumbling around third on the double, preventing him from scoring) to limit the damage.

After throwing 52 pitches to get the last six outs, Scott surrendered a one-out walk but got a scoreless fourth with another strikeout to close his day. His final line 4.0 innings, three runs on four hits and three walks with five strikeouts on 81 pitches (49 strikes). His ERA stands at 4.12 for the year.

- Taylor got in scoring position in the second when he dropped a single to right before Wood made a pair of errors on the play, allowing him to reach third with two down in the second. (Wood’s miscue gave the Nats 45 errors on the year, most in baseball.) Taylor dropped in an opposite-field double that just stayed fair with two down in the fifth off lefty Mitchell Parker, but was left stranded. He finished 2-for-6.

- Benge fell behind 0-2 but stuck with it to rip a fastball up in the zone the other way for a single to lead off the game. He smashed a liner his second time up (97.7 mph off the bat), but right at the first baseman to end the second. The rookie finished 1-for-4 with a walk.

- Soto took what the Nats defense gave him: dropping a bunt down the third base line for a one-out single to put two men on, but was left standing. He finished 2-for-5 with a strikeout and two intentional walks.

- Torrens bounced a ball to first to start the fifth and saw it bounce under Luis Garcia Jr.’s glove for an error, the Nats' 46th of the year and third of the night. He ended up 1-for-3 with an RBI. MJ Melendez pinch-hit for the catcher in the ninth and weakly grounded out to the pitcher.

- Ewing was a tough-luck strikeout victim his first time up when third base umpire Chris Segal called him out on a check swing. He got himself a single the other way with two down in the 11th to finish 2-for-6 with a pair of strikeouts.

- Vientos was hitless in five times up with a strikeout.

Here are the takeaways...

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