Lugo making his stay in pen worth it

WASHINGTON — For a time, there was an opening in the Mets rotation Wednesday night in Miami.

Seth Lugo showed Sunday night how he had pitched his way out of contention, in the best way possible.

Hours after manager Mickey Callaway had announced that Zack Wheeler would get the call from Triple-A to fill in for Wednesday’s spot start, Lugo delivered three innings of scoreless relief while at times walking a tightrope to help set up a 6-5, 12inning Mets win at Nationals Park.

Entering a 5-5 game in the ninth inning, Lugo issued a five-pitch walk to Bryce Harper before getting Matt Adams to fly out to center field. But as he faced Howie Kendrick, Lugo attempted a pickoff at first base and made an errant throw, allowing Harper to advance to second.

Manager Mickey Callaway then called for back-to-back intentional walks to Kendrick and Trea Turner to load the bases with one out.

Six pitches later, Lugo had escaped the jam. He mowed down Michael A. Taylor and Pedro Severino on back-to-back strikeouts — the first swinging, the other looking — to send the game to extra innings.

Lugo went on to work around a one-out single in the 10th and extend the game by doing the unthinkable — retiring Harper for the first time all night in his sixth plate appearance. With one out, Harper rolled a grounder to first and Gonzalez stopped it with a diving stab. Lugo dropped the relay to first, but composed himself and picked up the ball with his right hand while somehow keeping his right foot on the bag just long enough for the out.

The 11th inning — Lugo’s final act — was much less eventful as he retired the side, giving way to the Mets offense to scrape across a run and Jacob Rhame to nail down the save in the 12th.