0-23 doesn’t sound good. It is not even pleasant to type. But that regretfully was the Mets record after trailing after seven innings coming into Wednesday’s game against Nationals.

After the game, things changed.

Now that record is 1-23 as the New York Mets scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth to beat the Washington Nationals 6-1.(box score)

Three unlikely heroes carried the Mets to victory with important hits in the eighth. Adeiny Hechavarria, Juan Lagares and Rajai Davis all contributed leading the Mets to score six times in the frame to carry them to victory. Interestingly, of those three, only Lagares was in the starting line-up.

Hechavarria came into replace Robinson Cano in the fourth after Cano pulled up after a grounder in the third. He was later diagnosed with left quad tightness. Davis wasn’t even in Queens until Wednesday, but the 38-year-old homered in his first at-bat as a Met to give the Mets their final margin of victory.

Davis becomes the 11th player in Mets history to hit a home run in his first at bat, and also the oldest.

For Washington, they continue to be beleaguered by a loathsome bullpen. Coming into tonight’s game they were pitching to a 6.61 ERA, the highest in the league. Tonight’s efforts certainly didn’t help matters as their bullpen was responsible for all six Mets runs. The Nats are 2-9 in games started by Max Scherzer, who started Wednesday for the Nats and was excellent, allowing no-runs in six innings.

Mets starter Jacob deGrom was also excellent, allowing only two hits in six innings. The Mets bullpen recorded the last nine outs to secure the win.

New York has now won its last six games at Citi Field and seven of their last eight. They go for the series sweep on Thursday with Steven Matz pitching for the Mets.

Pitching

Jacob deGrom made his 10th start of the year, second against the Nationals and third against Scherzer.

Jake and the Mets fell behind two batters into the game. After a ground-out by lead-off man Trea Turner, Adam Eaton, who had been hitless in the series, slugged a home run to give the Nats the early lead. It was Eaton’s fourth homer of the year. No further damage was done in the first as both Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto flew-out to end the inning.

DeGrom settled in nicely after the opening frame at one point retiring 11 Nationals in the row. That streak ended in the fifth inning on a base-hit by Matt Adams to lead off the fifth, but was stranded as Washington failed to score.

Jacob wound up giving up only one more hit in his outing, a single by Adams in the fifth. Overall, deGrom went 6 innings, allowing two hits, one run, three walks and eight strikeouts tossing 103 pitches, 63 of which were strikes.

Robert Gsellman entered the game in the seventh and was able to retire the side in order needing only seven pitches.

Drew Gagnon started the eighth and mirrored Gsellman’s fine inning by pitching a 1-2-3 inning also requiring only 7 pitches.

Tyler Bashlor came into to pitch the ninth and worked around a single to secure the win.

Offense

The Mets managed seven hits against Washington on Wednesday night.

New York had an excellent chance to score in the first inning. Amed Rosario led off with a single. After a strikeout by J.D. Davis, Robinson Cano rolled a slow grounder to Adams who promptly threw a slow screwball into center field allowing Rosario to go to third and Cano to second. The Mets could not take advantage of the error as Pete Alonso struck out and Todd Frazier grounded out to end the inning.

The Mets were able to put two on in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, Frazier led off with a double, his seventh hit in his last 16 at-bats and first hit in his career against Scherzer. Carlos Gomez followed with a walk to put runners on first and second. Scherzer was able to get out of trouble by striking out both Juan Lagares and Tomas Nido to end the inning with the Nats still leading 1-0.

In the fifth, deGrom led off with a single, Jacob’s fifth hit of the year. After Rosario and Davis struck out, Adeiny Hechavarria walked to put runners again on first and second. Alonso could not bring extend the inning as he struck out for the third time in the game to end the inning. The Mets stranded a total of seven runners in the first five innings.

The Mets took the lead for good in an exciting eighth inning.  Hechavarria doubled with one out. Frazier drew a two-out walk and Gomez was hit by a pitch to load the bases. In perhaps one of the biggest at-bats of the year, Lagares doubled to deep left to empty the bases to give the Mets a 3-1 lead.

Wilson Ramos, who had come into to pinch hit for Nido was intentionally walked to put two men on. The Mets, with a short bench due to injuries, turned to 38 year-old Rajai Davis who just joined the team on Wednesday. He promptly launched a missile that cleared the wall in left. The three-run home run gave the Mets a 6-1 lead.

On Deck

The Mets conclude their four game series against the Nationals playing a Thursday matinee with first pitch scheduled for 12:10 PM. Steven Matz (3-3, 3.96 ERA) will make his second start after coming off the IL.

A high pitch count ( 81 pitches) limited Matz to only 3 2/3 innings in his last start against Miami in his last outing. Stephen Strasburg (4-3, 3.32 ERA) will be on the hill for the Nationals. Strasburg has been on his game lately as since mid-April he held hitters to a .189 batting average. He has faced the Mets twice the year with a 1-0 record and 2.84 ERA.