Mark Canha had two run-producing hits in the Mets’ eight-run fifth inning as New York won 8-2 to forge a split of Sunday’s results against the host Washington Nationals.
Canha finished 3-for-4 as the Mets won for just the fifth time in their last 15 games. They’ve won two of three in the series, which wraps up Monday.
Mets starter Max Scherzer (3-2), who hadn’t pitched since May 3 because of neck spasms, held the Nationals to one run in five innings. He allowed two hits, walked two and struck out six.
Earlier Sunday, the Nationals won 3-2 in the completion of Saturday’s suspended game on CJ Abrams’ solo home run in the seventh inning.
Nationals starter Jake Irvin (1-1) cruised through the first four innings of the nightcap, but ended up with his first loss as a big-league pitcher.
In the fifth, four of the first five Mets batters reached base. Canha’s double and Brandon Nimmo’s single accounted for the first two runs. The other six runs came after Washington got the second out.
Francisco Lindor’s single made it 3-1 before Irvin, facing what would be his final batter, hit Pete Alonso with a pitch. Reliever Mason Thompson walked Brett Baty with the bases loaded and then gave up Starling Marte’s two-run single. Canha’s second hit of the inning, a single, produced the eighth run.
Irvin was charged with six runs. He walked one and struck out six before Washington used four relievers.
Lindor and Marte each had two hits.
Three relievers followed Scherzer, with Zach Muckenhirn working the final two innings.
Washington, which scored in the second inning on Abrams’ double, added a run in the eighth inning on Abrams’ single. Luis Garcia had three hits for the Nationals, who have lost three of their last five games.
Washington had some chances for a comeback, but it stranded 13 runners on base. The Nationals had seven hits and drew six walks.
–Field Level Media
