WASHINGTON — The Mets’ starting pitching mess has stabilized over the past three games, resulting in happier outcomes for the team.
There was Nolan McLean’s impressive major league debut on Saturday, followed by Clay Holmes’ one-run appearance a day later. And Tuesday night David Peterson reverted to being the workhorse who has carried this rotation for much of the season.
Peterson’s eight superb innings, in which he surrendered one run, helped the Mets beat the Nationals 8-1 for a third straight victory.
On a day Francisco Alvarez was placed on the injured list with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb — his return is uncertain this season — the Mets used Peterson’s left arm and an offensive explosion to create positive vibes.
The length from Peterson was appreciated by manager Carlos Mendoza as his team began a stretch of 16 scheduled games in as many days.
“We’re going to need our starters,” Mendoza said.
Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, Juan Soto and Jeff McNeil all homered as the Mets continued their success against the Nationals, with a sixth victory in eight games against them this season.
Peterson has thrived as much as anybody during the season series. His dominance on this night gave him one earned run over 17 innings this year against the Nationals, including a complete-game shutout at Citi Field on June 11.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily anything with me versus them,” Peterson said. “I think it’s happenstance with being really efficient with my pitches and getting soft contact when I needed to and finishing guys when I had to put them away.”
Peterson, following a rare flop in his previous start, allowed only four hits and struck out 10. In his outing against the Braves last Wednesday, he lasted only 3 ¹/₃ innings and allowed six runs — five of which were earned.
“It felt kind of uncharacteristic to me, so it was kind of flushing it and getting on to the next one,” Peterson said. “I kind of knew exactly what I didn’t do well and needed to work on. I kind of prioritized that.”
Tuesday was his ninth start in which he completed at least six innings since the Mets had another pitcher work that deep: Holmes went six innings on June 7.
Peterson said there isn’t a magic formula to working deep.
“I just go out there and try to give the team a chance to win, try to be efficient — on the attack, getting ahead early in counts,” he said.
The Mets exploded in the third inning with five runs. Vientos delivered the loudest hit with a two-run homer — his second blast in as many games — after the Mets had already built a 3-0 lead in the inning.
Brandon Nimmo’s RBI single — following Francisco Lindor’s double and a walk to Soto — delivered the game’s first run. McNeil’s ensuing two-run double added to that lead before Vientos cleared the left-field fence.
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Peterson allowed a leadoff single to Andrés Chaparro in the bottom of the inning before getting Brady House to hit into a double play. Peterson worked perfect innings in the first, second, fourth, fifth and seventh.
Baty launched the first pitch of the sixth inning for a homer to give the Mets a 6-0 lead. It was homer No. 14 this season for Baty and his third in seven games.
Soto delivered the Mets’ third blast of the night, clearing the left-field fence to begin the seventh, for his 31st homer of the season. It was like old times for Soto, who began his career with the Nationals and hit 119 homers for the team over five seasons.
McNeil homered in the ninth to finish 3-for-4 with three RBIs.
“We haven’t played a game like that in a while,” Mendoza said. “But a good start [to the road trip]. I have been saying it: We have got good players. We’re a good team. We have just got to go out there and do it. We did it today.”
