WASHINGTON – There’s no bigger gimme these days than a date with the wretched Nationals.
The Mets gladly took their turn at the buffet table here last night, gorging themselves on the pitching of baseball’s worst team in a 12-0 laugher that felt even more lopsided than the final score.
No need for the Amazin’s to sweat out the final innings with their shaky bullpen this time. Nationals starter Jason Bergmann couldn’t throw a strike to save his life as interim manager Jerry Manuel’s club blew it open with an eight-run third.
“We needed to have an offensive game like this,” Manuel said after a 13-hit outburst. “Everything has been early, then nothing. To get double-digit runs means that a lot of people contributed offensively, and that’s huge for us.”
Rookie left fielder Daniel Murphy was the offensive star, continuing his meteoric rise with a 3-for-6 night highlighted by his second career homer – an opposite-field shot in spacious Nationals Park, no less – and three RBIs. Murphy is hitting .467 in his first two weeks in the majors.
The Mets’ second straight win over the NL East cellar-dwellers and fifth victory in the past seven games overall moved them into a first-place tie with the Phillies, who lost 7-6 to the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
All of the fireworks overshadowed a solid return from the disabled list by Mets starter John Maine, who showed no lingering effects from his strained rotator cuff while pitching five innings of one-hit ball.
The Mets wanted to be careful with Maine, yanking him after 90 pitches in advance of what Manuel continues to insist could be a conversion to the bullpen as soon as this weekend in Pittsburgh.
“It’s still a little sore, but I felt better than I have the past couple of weeks,” Maine said. “I went out there and did just enough. With the way the score being what it was, it was a good time to only go five innings.”
Maine walked four but was otherwise encouraging in those 90 pitches, striking out six and giving up just a second-inning single by former Met Lastings Milledge before giving way to the newly recalled Brian Stokes.
Maine (10-7) reached double digits in wins for a second consecutive year.
“He looked good tonight,” Manuel said. “The velocity is something that will probably come a little later, but I thought he threw some pretty good curveballs. Any time you can break off curveballs like that, you’ve got to feel good.”
Manuel also said he liked what he saw from Stokes, a right-hander who appears probable to stick around after closer Billy Wagner comes off the DL next week by pitching four innings of three-hit ball.
Even Stokes got into the Mets’ hitting act, lacing a single to load the bases in the eighth. Then again, that was to be expected when all but two starting position players got hits against Bergmann (2-9) and the rest of a woeful staff.
The Mets got to Bergmann with solo runs in the first and second innings before busting out in the third. They sent 13 men to the plate in the third, all of them against Bergmann.
The Mets’ half-inning dragged on for more than half an hour, but Maine said he didn’t mind the wait.
“It’s easier to pitch when you’ve got that kind of lead because you’re not really concerned with what’s going on,” he said.
bhubbuch@nypost.com