The Mets won a wild one against the Nats on Thursday afternoon to complete a four-game sweep >> Box score
Five things to know about Thursday's game
1) Trailing 4-3 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, the Nats elected to walk Wilson Ramos intentionally to put runners on first and second for Carlos Gomez, who crushed a three-run homer to left-center field off reliever Wander Suarez to give the Mets a 6-4 lead. Dominic Smith had doubled to start the inning.
2) A day after Mickey Callaway said Edwin Diaz would now be available for four-out saves, he was nowhere to be found in the top of the eighth inning as Robert Gsellman was blowing a 3-1 lead. Not only did Diaz not enter the game with runners on second and third and two outs and Gerardo Parra up -- he wasn't even warming up. Callaway did have two other relievers warming (left-hander Ryan O'Rourke and right-hander Drew Gagnon), but stuck with Gsellman -- who gave up a two-run single as the Nats took a 4-3 lead.
3) Steven Matz danced in and out of trouble all day (with some of it the fault of the defense behind him). But featuring a really good curve, Matz limited the Nationals to one run on 10 hits while walking two and striking out seven in 6.0 innings as he lowered his ERA for the season to 3.63. Jeurys Familia looked sharp while pitching a perfect seventh inning.
4) The Mets took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning when a sacrifce fly off the bat of Juan Lagares drove in Carlos Gomez. The Nats evened things in the top of the sixth, but the Mets came right back in the bottom half of the inning to score two runs and take a 3-1 lead. The Mets' first run in the sixth inning came on a sacrifce fly by Pete Alonso. The second run was a more rare feat -- an infield single deep in the hole at shortstop by Wilson Ramos.
5) While Lagares helped the Mets offensively on Thursday, he was a hindrance on defense -- playing a fly ball into a triple in the second inning and making an error on what arguably would have been a fly out to shallow center later in the game, which allowed the Nats to have a runner at second base. Matz worked around both miscues.
What's next
The Mets begin a three-game series against the Tigers on Friday at 7:10 p.m. at Citi Field.
Noah Syndergaard starts for the Mets, opposed by Gregory Soto for Detroit.