Thole, Mets win 5th straight, top Nationals 6-4
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Josh Thole had three RBIs, including a two-run double that put the Mets ahead run in the sixth inning, and New York ran its winning streak to five games Tuesday night with a 6-4 win over the Washington Nationals.
Thole's double to the corner was just beyond the reach of left fielder Michael Morse and brought home Jason Bay and Ike Davis, breaking a 3-3 tie. The hit came off lefty Doug Slaten, who entered to face Thole.
Ryota Igarashi (1-0) struck out Jayson Werth to end the fifth inning. Starter Chris Young lasted 4 2-3 innings, allowing three runs and four hits in his first start since returning from the disabled list with tendinitis in his right biceps.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jordan Zimmermann (1-4) allowed five runs and nine hits over 5 1-3 innings.
The Mets, opening a six-game road trip, moved within three games of .500 as they continue to recover from a dreadful start to the season.
Igarashi, Taylor Buchholz and Jason Isringhausen and Francisco Rodriguez allowed only one run over 4 1-3 innings. Rodriguez pitched the ninth for his fifth save.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Zimmermann kept the Nationals the only team to have its starters go at least five innings in every game — but the sixth did him in. He gave up back-to-back singles to Bay and Davis before leaving the game, setting the table for Thole.
Davis finished with three hits, and is 13 for 28 during an eight-game hitting streak.
The Nationals, opening a seven-game homestand, have lost five of six. They've been struggling at the plate, and three of their runs came off solo homers. Wilson Ramos hit a pair — the first multihomer game of his career — and Werth hit his fourth of the season.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But Werth was also struck out by reliever Igarashi with men on second and third with two outs in the fifth. Ramos kept producing, moving the Nationals within a run with a two-out RBI single in the eighth that scored Rick Ankiel, but the Mets picked up a run in the ninth on an RBI groundout to restore the two-run lead.
The Mets took a 2-0 lead in the second on an RBI groundout by Thole and a safety squeeze RBI by Young. Carlos Beltran hit an RBI double in the third.
Notes: The Nationals placed SS Ian Desmond on the paternity leave list and recalled OF Roger Bernadina from Triple-A Syracuse. Desmond's wife, Chelsey, gave birth Tuesday to the couple's first son, Grayson Wesley Desmond. Manager Jim Riggleman says he expects Desmond to miss two games. ... Washington 3B Ryan Zimmerman, on the 15-day disabled list with a strained abdominal muscle, is playing catch and doing some running. Riggleman said Zimmerman will probably have a rehabilitation assignment before returning to the big league club. ... Before the game, the Mets visited wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.