CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: David Wright, rounding the bases after his first of two home runs and getting congratulations in the dugout (inset) drove in five runs in the Met’s 9-5 victory against the Nationals yesterday in Washington. (
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WASHINGTON —David Wright didn’t let his big performance yesterday, or the fact the Mets finally won a game, cloud his assessment of what transpired over the last week.
“All and all it’s a brutal road trip for us,” Wright said after the Mets beat the Nationals 9-5 to snap a six-game losing streak. “We have to dig down deep. Every win is a big win.”
Wright did the most digging, hitting two homers and driving in five runs as the Mets turned All-Star lefty Gio Gonzalez into a punching bag. The Mets (47-45) built a 9-1 lead in the fourth inning, allowing R.A. Dickey to coast until the bullpen provided a few tense moments late.
But for a team that hadn’t won in 12 days, including the All-Star break, it might as well have been pure perfection. The victory moved the Mets within seven games of the NL East leading Nationals — whom they will face again next week at Citi Field — but more importantly kept them only 3 1/2 lengths behind the Braves for the second wild card.
“We held on — that’s all that matters,” manager Terry Collins said after watching the Nationals bring the tying run to the on-deck circle in the ninth inning.
The Mets knocked out Gonzalez (12-5) in the fourth, and Wright’s second homer of the game — a three-run blast against reliever Craig Stammen — extended the lead to 9-1. It gave Wright homers in three straight at-bats — he went deep in the ninth inning Wednesday night — for the second time in his career.
“It’s something we struggled with this series, especially, scoring runs early,” Wright said. “So it was nice to jump on a guy who can go on to win the Cy Young. To be able to jump on him early and let R.A. coast a little bit was big for us.”
Gonzalez, in his shortest start of the season, lasted only 3 1/3 innings and allowed six earned runs on six hits with two strikeouts and three walks. The lefty had allowed only four homers all season before the Mets took him deep twice yesterday. Ike Davis homered leading off the second, after Wright hit a two-run blast in the first inning.
Dickey (13-1) rebounded from consecutive clunkers to become the first 13-game winner in the major leagues. The knuckleballer lasted 7 1/3 innings and allowed four runs — three earned — on 10 hits with a walk and five strikeouts.
Dickey said he refused to view yesterday’s game in must-win terms.
“It’s obvious that we have not been playing to our capability so we lost some games here in a row,” Dickey said. “But I don’t think anybody has panicked, so as far as this thing as a ‘must win,’ if you do that, you’re just going to run out of gas too quickly. If you play that game you’ll just mentally drain yourself.”
Tim Byrdak, Ramon Ramirez, Josh Edgin and Bobby Parnell combined to get the final five outs. Parnell surrendered a run in the ninth and had two runners aboard before striking out Sandy Leon to end the game.
The Mets hope they can turn their victory into a winning streak, with the Dodgers arriving at Citi Field for three games beginning tonight. Three weeks ago, the Mets beat the Dodgers in three of four games in Los Angeles.
“We’ve dug ourselves a little bit of a hole,” Wright said. “The funny thing is we haven’t played terribly. We’ve given an inning away here and there on this road trip and that has come back to cost us five games, and there were a couple of games we just flat out got beat, but it seemed like every game we had a chance to win.”