Lindor’s HR leads 6th straight victory

WASHINGTON — Francisco Lindor hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning and the New York Mets, after blowing a nine-run lead, extended their winning streak to six by beating the Washington Nationals 11-9 Saturday to open a split doubleheader on Saturday.

Ahead 9-0 in the fourth, the Mets saw the Nationals force extra innings on Andrew Stevenson’s two-out, two-run homer in the seventh that made it 9-all.

Mets reliever Trevor May (7-2) escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth. Lindor then led off the ninth with his 12th homer, connecting against closer Kyle Finnegan (4-6) to also score the automatic runner from second.

Heath Hembree pitched the ninth to record his ninth save. Washington lost its seventh in a row.

The Mets have never blown a lead of more than eight runs in a loss, and barely avoided doing it this time.

New York began the day four games behind Atlanta in the NL East and four games back of Cincinnati for the second wild-card spot

The Mets squandered a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the ninth Friday night before recovering to win 6-2 in the 10th.

Michael Conforto’s 11th homer pushed the Mets in front 9-0 in the fourth.

The Nationals scored three times in the fourth. Alcides Escobar hit a two-run double to highlight a four-run sixth that made it 9-7.

Javier Baez hit his 27th homer as part of a four-run second.

ORIOLES 4, YANKEES 3: Aroldis Chapman gave up Pedro Severino’s tiebreaking sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the ninth inning and host New York lost to Baltimore after the last-place Orioles took a no-hitter into the seventh.

BLUE JAYS 10, ATHLETICS 8: Teoscar Hernandez hit his 100th career home run, Jose Berrios took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and the Blue Jays survived a late scare to hold off visiting Oakland, Toronto’s sixth win in seven games.

CUBS 7, PIRATES: Rookie Frank Schwindel hustled hard and sprawled for an RBI single that capped a threerun rally with two outs in the ninth inning, lifting host Chicago over Pittsburgh for its fifth straight win.