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The New York Mets (15-11) had never had a four-game losing streak with Buck Showalter as manager. That was spoiled Wednesday. On Thursday, they were able to avoid their first five-game losing streak and being swept by the Washington Nationals (9-15) as the offense found a way to rally in the eighth inning for a 9-8 victory.

In the win, the Mets offense broke out for 16 hits, and the top five hitters in the batting order combined to go 9-for-24 with six RBIs. Also, six of the nine hitters in the order had two or more hits.

The Mets got the scoring started in the bottom of the second. After back-to-back one-out singles by Jeff McNeil and Daniel Vogelbach against former Met Trevor Williams, Mark Canha drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly to left.

Washington answered back immediately in the third when Alex Call led off the inning with a solo shot to center, his second of the season against Joey Lucchesi.

However, the Mets gained the lead back in the fourth with a crooked inning. After Williams struck out Vogelbach and Canha to begin the frame, Brett Baty hit a solo shot to center to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. It was Baty’s first home run of the season and the third of his young career.

As the inning continued, a Francisco Álvarez walk, a Brandon Nimmo single, and a Starling Marte walk loaded the bases for Francisco Lindor and the shortstop made them pay as he pulled an 0-2 inside pitch down the right field line for a two-run double to extend the lead to 4-1.

On the night, Williams went five innings, allowed four runs on nine hit, walked two, and struck out four on 95 pitches (62 strikes) in the no-decision.

Lucchesi was having a strong outing going until the sixth. Joey Meneses led off the inning with a single. Two batters later, Lane Thomas singled and that ended the left-hander’s night. Lucchesi went 5 1/3 innings, allowed three runs on five hits, walked two, and struck out three on 90 pitches (57 strikes) in the no-decision.

Showalter went to the bullpen and brought in Tommy Hunter to try to limit the damage. While Hunter kept the Mets in front, he did allow a pair of RBI singles to Luis García and Victor Robles that cut the lead to 4-3.

Like earlier in the game, the Mets answered back in the bottom of the frame. Nimmo led off with a single for his second hit of the night against Erasmo Ramírez and came around to score on a double by Lindor, his second of the night.

As the inning continued, Pete Alonso and Vogelbach each had RBI singles of their own that gave New York a 7-3 lead.

That lead would soon disappear in the top of the eighth as the Nationals scored five runs on just one hit. Due to back-to-back hit-by-pitches and a Lindor error, the Nats had the bases loaded and Showalter went to Brooks Raley (1-0, 4.76). Raley could not stop the bleeding as Garcia had a sac fly, Robles was hit by a pitch, and then CJ Abrams hit a stunning grand slam to give the Nationals an 8-7 lead.

But, for the third time in the game, the Mets did not let Washington’s lead last for long. Davey Martinez went to Mason Thompson, who pitched three innings two days previous, to face the heart of the Mets order and he struggled. Marte led off with a single, stole second, and made it to third on a Lindor sac fly. Alonso ended up being the hero with a double into the gap in right-center that tied the game at 8.

Then, McNeil ended up hitting a triple off the wall in right to get the Citi Field crowd going crazy and it put New York in front, 9-8:

David Robertson came in to pitch the ninth and was dominant as he threw a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts to pick up his fifth save of the season.

There was some injury news as Álvarez ended up leaving the game after the eighth inning. During the game, he had been struck in the back of the head twice on backswings. Showalter said after the game that

Player Of The Game

Tonight’s player of the game goes to Brett Baty as he picked up the first three-hit performance of his career. He was able to take advantage of a 0-1 curveball from Williams in the fourth that hung just enough in the zone for a 400-foot home run in the fourth. He worked a six-pitch at-bat against Williams for a single in the second and then got an 0-1 pitch down the middle and picked up his third hit in the fifth with a single.

On the night, Baty was 3-for-3 with a walk as he took advantage of the opportunity to get more playing time and he’s now reached base in six straight games.

On Deck

On Friday night, the Mets will continue their homestand as they begin a four-game series against the reigning NL East champions, the Atlanta Braves (17-9). You can watch the game on WPIX-11 or MLB Network (out-of-market) at 7:10 PM ET. It will be a battle of southpaws as David Peterson (1-3, 7.36 ERA) takes the ball for the Mets against Max Fried (1-0, 0.60 ERA) for the Braves.