Wilmer Flores hit his fifth in five days, a three-run homer, in the fifth to give the Mets their first lead of the night in the fifth inning.
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Travis d’Arnaud, Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera also went deep for NY in a slugfest that featured eight home runs – most in the eight-year history of Citi Field. The win also extends their lead to four games over the New York Mets on the eve of a crucial four-game series against the division rival right before the All-Star break.
Daniel Murphy homered and drove in three runs, his latest big performance against the Mets since the defending NL champions let him leave as a free agent in the offseason. Bryce Harper, Clint Robinson and Anthony Rendon hit solo shots off 43-year-old Bartolo Colon in the fourth to give the Nationals a 4-1 lead.
The homer by Flores capped a frenetic two-inning span in which the Mets and Nationals combined for 11 runs on 15 hits, including six homers.
The Mets’ Neil Walker added an insurance run for closer Jeurys Familia, but the ninth inning wasn’t without controversy. Later in the inning, Met killer Wilson Ramos singled to bring home Murphy and make it a 6-4 game.
Flores is now batting.314 with four doubles, seven home runs, 22 RBI and 14 runs scored in 32 games since June 3, though he now figures to return to a part-time role due to the arrival of Jose Reyes, who also homered Thursday against the Nationals. The fan favorite popped out of the dugout for a curtain call and pumped his left fist to acknowledge a crowd of 37,569 that chanted his name.
Hansel Robles (3-3) retired Rendon with the bases loaded to end the fifth and worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
The Washington Nationals picked up an important win Wednesday, beating the Milwaukee Brewers 7-4 and avoiding a three-game sweep. Manager Dusty Baker declined to specify which body part was sore but said Zimmerman is day-to-day.
As likely will be the case when the Mets face righties, Reyes started at third base Thursday against Lucas Giolito, and it left Flores as the odd-man out in the starting rotation.
Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman did not participate in the team’s frantic 9-7 loss to the Mets on Thursday due to an unspecified soreness.
NOTES: Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said RHP Matt Harvey has symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome. “Wow. I hate to hear that. You can’t afford to lose a guy for six to eight weeks or whatever, however long it takes if he’d really hurt it, pulled it”, Baker said. “Wishing the best. He’s on the opposition but we don’t wish that on anybody. Last time we came here, we heard all the boos that he was getting and stuff, so evidently, something might have been wrong with him throughout the course of the year”.
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Nationals (51-36) at Mets (47-38), 7:10 p.m. ET: A pitching matchup between Cy Young Award candidates, Stephen Strasburg (11-0, 2.71 ERA) takes the mound against host Noah Syndergaard (9-3, 2.41 ERA).
