Mets move into playoff position with win in Nationals

The hole the Mets spent much of April and May digging has disappeared.

The same club that was 11 games under .500 as recently as June 2 became a potential playoff team on July 11.

With a 7-0 win over the Nationals to complete the sweep Thursday in front of 25,710 at Citi Field, Carlos Mendoza’s group moved percentage points above the Padres for the third NL wild-card spot, an impressive charge to the postseason picture. Not because of the depths to which they fell, but the speed with which those depths were erased.

If the season ended today the Mets (47-45) would be part of the postseason – which of course makes no sense, especially because the Padres (49-47) are on the outside looking in because of the inconsistency in play-by-play percentage. The points are behind.

But the Mets trading his shovel for a bat and getting back into contention certainly helped his confidence and certainly sent a message to a front office that is less than three weeks away from a trade-deadline decision.

“We believe we are a really good team. We want to be buyers later this month,” said Brandon Nimmo, whose bases-clearing double in the fifth started the scoreless game. “And we believe we are not far away from being a serious contender. We’re playing really good baseball. “We want to continue to do that.”

He has won five out of six.

Since rock bottom on May 29, when they were blown out by the Dodgers, Jorge Lopez threw his glove into the stands and Francisco Lindor called a players-only meeting, they are 25-12.

In that period, he has averaged 5.9 runs per game.

In the Mets’ first 55 contests, they averaged 4.1 runs per game.

On June 2, just 5 ¹/₂ weeks earlier, the Mets were the third-worst team in the National League.

They are two games above .500 for the first time since going 13–11 on April 24.

“Given what we went through in the month of May and how far we came back,” Mendoza said after his club’s first shutout of the season, “it’s a good feeling to be able to get to this point, but also to understand where we are right now.” are also here, still have a long way to go.”

Again on Thursday, they looked like a club that deserves to attract buyers.

David Peterson pitched six strong, scoreless innings and became the third starter to make a quality start in the series.

Peterson, Jose Quintana, and Luis Severino combined to pitch 20 ¹/₃ innings, giving up a total of two runs (both by Severino) against Washington.

Peterson’s trouble came in the second inning, when the Nationals put runners on the corners with no outs.

He responded by consistently striking out Trey Lipscomb, Jacob Young and CJ Abrams.

The lefty missed the first two months of the season after offseason hip surgery, but he wants to extend his year through October.

“We want to be in the postseason,” said Peterson, who has allowed two or fewer earned runs in seven of his first eight starts. “We want all that stuff.”

Peterson’s excellence allowed his offensive timing to be perfect, which ultimately happened against lefty McKenzie Gore.

The first hit – a JD Martínez double – came in the fourth.

Got success in the fifth.

The Mets mounted a two-out rally after Luis Torrance led off the frame with a double.

Jeff McNeil and Lindor worked to load the bases for the Mets’ perfect batter at the plate.

Since not specifically being voted into the All-Star Game on Sunday, Nimmo has turned into perhaps MLB’s best hitter.

Nimmo got a middle-of-the-plate fastball and didn’t miss, shooting a double to left-center that went triple.

In the four games since the snub, Nimmo has gone 5 for 17 with three home runs, a double and nine RBI.

The Mets took it on from there, with Martínez and Pete Alonso coming up with RBI hits, before they scored two more in the eighth, when Mark Vientos and Harrison Bader added RBI singles.

Phil Maton pitched two scoreless innings in a perfect frame in his club debut and pitched three scoreless innings along with Danny Young, Dedanil Nunez and Adam Ottavino to help out of trouble.

The bullpen appears to have settled down and could use an additional player or two for a team that is firmly in the playoff race.

“The work is not done,” Nimmo said. “We’ve done a lot of work to get back to this point because we dug ourselves a bit of a hole.

“But…we don’t believe this is just a fluke.”