Lindor helps Mets defeat Nationals
Shortstop forces balk, hits two-run double as N.Y. takes two of three
Francisco Lindor forced a balk and hit a two-run double, Javier Baez and Jonathan Villar homered and the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals 9-4 on Sunday.
The Mets took two of three and won a series for the first time since sweeping the Nationals in a three-game set Aug. 10-12.
Josh Bell hit two home runs for Washington and Juan Soto also connected. Those were the only three hits for the Nationals in the game.
Lindor set the tone for the Mets by dancing off third in the first and forcing a balk by Erick Fedde (6-9). It was the first balk of the season for Washington and the first time the Mets have scored via a balk since March 30, 2019, also against the Nationals.
Baez put the Mets ahead for good with a 444-foot homer, a two-run drive in the fourth that made it 3-2. Villar hit a two-run homer in the sixth, and also tripled and singled. He scored three times.
Pete Alonso had an RBI single among his three hits and Dominic Smith delivered a run-scoring, pinch-hit single.
Tylor Megill (2-3) allowed two runs on one hit — a fourth-inning, two-run homer by Bell — and walked three with five strikeouts over five innings. Four Mets relievers threw an inning apiece to complete the threehitter.
Soto homered off Aaron Loup leading off the sixth — the first homer surrendered by the Mets’ lefty to a left-handed hitter since Corey Dickerson for Tampa Bay on June 13, 2017.
Bell connected again in the eighth. The two-homer game was the first of the season for Bell
and the sixth of his career.
Washington’s Alcides Escobar went 0 for 4 as his 10-game hitting streak ended.
Fedde allowed five earned runs on eight hits and one walk with six whiffs in 51⁄3 innings.
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