Jason Vargas and the New York Mets took on NL Cy Young Award candidate Max Scherzer and the Washington Nationals in the opening game of their four-game set in the nation’s capital.

On paper, this looked like a very one-sided pitching matchup. In reality, the Mets’ 35-year-old lefty went toe-to-toe with one of the game’s best and was rolling before allowing a two-run homer to Anthony Rendon in the sixth, which effectively ended his night.

Behind back-to-back home runs from Michael Conforto and Jay Bruce in the third and two extra-base hits from wunderkind, Jeff McNeil, the Mets went into the bottom of the eighth with a 4-2 lead.

The Nats tied it up in the eighth, and despite four baserunners between the 10th and 11th innings, the Mets couldn’t take a lead. They finally broke the tie on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly from Jose Lobaton in the 12th and Paul Sewald closed out the 5-4 win.

Pitching

Jason Vargas came into tonight’s game looking to build off of a very encouraging start versus Miami on Sept 13 (six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, two walks), and he did just that.

He worked around a two-out walk to Bryce Harper in the first, and after issuing his second bases-on-balls of the game to Trea Turner with one out in the third, he got Harper to ground out and struck out Rendon on a perfectly-placed knuckle-curve to leave him stranded.

Vargas struck out two more Nats in the fourth, setting down Juan Soto and Wieters for the second time, then notched two more punchouts in the fifth, retiring his adversary Scherzer and Robles for his seventh and eighth of the game.

Turner led off the bottom half of the sixth with the Nats’ second hit of the game against Vargas, an infield single. The crafty lefty then got Harper to fly out to left field, but allowed a towering home run to Rendon, cutting the Mets’ lead to 3-2 and putting a damper on arguably Vargas’ best start of the season.

After setting down Soto, Mickey Callaway removed Vargas, who ended the game with a final line of 5.2 innings, allowing two runs on three hits, striking out eight and walking just two. His earned-run average on the year dropped to 6.25, a far cry from the 8.36 ERA he was sporting heading into August.

Seth Lugo pitched a clean bottom of the seventh, then Anthony Swarzak came out to pitch the bottom of the eighth and gave up a leadoff single to Victor Robles and walked Turner, which drew the hook from Callaway in favor of Daniel Zamora, who got Harper to fly out to the edge of the warning track in right for the first out.

Robert Gsellman relieved Zamora, getting Rendon to ground out but allowing Robles to score, making it a 4-3 game. Soto then drove a double off of the wall in right to tie the game at four apiece.

Tyler Bashlor got the ball in the ninth and showed off his nasty arsenal of high-90’s heat and a wicked low-80’s slider that breaks like a tight 12-6 curve, setting down the Nats in order with two strikeouts.

Jacob Rhame came out for the tenth and Harper put a soft groundball into no-mans-land between the mound and second base for a one-out infield single, the Nats’ third of the game. Harper appeared to steal second but the call was reversed via replay for the second out. He walked Rendon on five pitches but got Soto to ground out.

Rhame came back out for the eleventh and allowed a leadoff double to Zimmerman, who advanced to third on a sacrifice fly. He got Matt Reynolds swinging at a slider for the second out and struck out Robles to end the threat.

Paul Sewald pitched the bottom of the 12th and retired Turner, struck out Harper (who was then ejected for “arguing” a called third strike), and got Rendon to ground out for his second save of the season.

Offense

Jeff McNeil lucked out on a miscommunication between centerfielder Victor Robles and second baseman Adrian Sanchez in the first inning, resulting in his tenth double of the year.

The Mets went down in order in the second, with Brandon Nimmo and Kevin Plawecki both falling victim to some downright nasty stuff from Max Scherzer.

Vargas singled to lead off the top of the third, then Scherzer went right back to work, striking out Rosario and McNeil.

But just as he was getting comfortable, Conforto drilled his 27th homer of the year to left-center to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. Right after him, Bruce parked his ninth of the year in the seats, extending the Metsies lead to 3-0.

Scherzer punched out Nimmo and Plawecki again in a perfect fourth and struck out three more Mets in the fifth. He racked up his 12th and 13th strikeouts of the night, with Plawecki and Austin Jackson as the victims, in the seventh.

Jeff McNeil notched his sixth triple of the season leading off the eighth, a rope over the bag at first base, then Jay Bruce drove in his second run of the night with a single to right, extending the Mets lead to 4-2.

Sean Doolittle retired the Mets in order in the ninth and Greg Holland took the ball in the tenth and allowed a leadoff single to Rosario. McNeil struck out for the third time, with Callaway turning into Mick Fury arguing a called-strike to Mac and earning his second ejection of the season.

Conforto and Bruce drew consecutive walks to load the bases with one out but Jack Reinheimer grounded into 1-4-3 double play to kill the rally and end the inning.

Brandon Nimmo stroked his 27th double of the year over Harper’s head in right to lead off the 11th but was left stranded.

Rosario tallied his third hit of the game with a leadoff single in the 12th and moved to second on McNeil’s sacrifice bunt. After Conforto was walked intentionally and Bruce drew a conventional walk, Jose Lobaton (in his first MLB plate appearance since June 2) gave the Mets a 5-4 lead with a sac fly to score Rosario.

On Deck

Jacob deGrom (8-9, 1.78 ERA) will continue his quest for the NL Cy Young award at 7:05 PM in Washington, DC, taking on Joe Ross (0-0, 3.60 ERA) and the Nationals in the second game of their weekend series.

The game will be televised on SNY and can be heard on 710 AM WOR.