NEW YORK — The Mets picked up in June where they left off in May, defeating the Nationals, 5-0, on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field for their sixth consecutive victory.
But after beating up on the Phillies and Nationals of the struggling National League East, the Mets (35-17) now will step up in class on a West Coast trip that includes series against the Dodgers, Padres and Angels starting on Thursday night.
At the conclusion of the game, the Mets had an 11-game lead in the NL East pending Atlanta’s late-afternoon game in Arizona.
Their 10 ½-game lead entering June tied the Mets with the 1971 Giants for the largest lead entering June in National League history.
After three scoreless innings the Mets broke through with two in the fourth against Washington starter Evan Lee, who was making his major-league debut and lost a Double-A game five days earlier.
Tomas Nido singled home J.D. Davis, and Luis Guillorme scored, too, when centerfielder Dee Strange-Gordon misplayed the ball Nido hit.
Mets starter Carlos Carasco (6-1, 3.63) labored through five innings but somehow escaped without giving up a run. He allowed four hits, walked five and struck out five while throwing 95 pitches (56 for strikes).
In the seventh inning, Francisco Lindor made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly that scored Nido. It was Lindor’s 10th consecutive game with at least one RBI, tied with Mike Piazza for the second-longest streak in franchise history. Piazza's 15-game streak in 2000 is the longest.
Nido added his career-high fourth hit of the game in the eighth — a two-run double that made it 5-0.
The Nationals fell to 18-34. Attendance at Citi Field was 25,417.
