Christian Scott serves up key homer as Mets blow five-run lead in loss to Nationals

WASHINGTON — Christian Scott’s return to the big leagues fell one out short of impressive Wednesday night.

Luis Garcia Jr. was the rookie right-hander’s final batter of the game regardless of the outcome.

Scott left a sweeper over the plate with two outs in the sixth and the Nationals’ second baseman crushed it for a three-run homer, starting a downward slide that ended with a 7-5 loss for the Mets at Nationals Park.

The Mets (42-42) missed an opportunity to move two games over .500 for the first time since April 24.

As has been the case lately when the Mets lose, the bullpen was a factor.

Jake Diekman surrendered two earned runs in only one-third of an inning, in the seventh, before Garcia Jr.’s second homer of the game, against Ty Adcock in the eighth, gave the Nationals their margin of victory.

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For the first time in four games the Mets didn’t need extra innings to decide the outcome.

Scott, back in the rotation after starting five games for the Mets in May and then returning to Triple-A Syracuse, allowed four earned runs on six hits and two walks with two strikeouts over 5 ²/₃ innings.

“I didn’t get a lot of whiffs today, it was a lot of soft contact,” Scott said. “I need to do a better job of making a better pitch in two-strike counts … the defense played great and helped me out a lot today.”

At 97 pitches with two runners on base, he remained in the game to face Garcia in the sixth and watched his sweeper rocket into the right-field seats to erase most of the Mets’ 5-1 lead.

“Where we are bullpen-wise after [Scott] got a pop out for the second out I tried to squeeze one more hitter and that didn’t work,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He was pretty good to that point. Obviously we pushed him a little bit there.”

Scott was asked about the emotion of watching a 5-1 lead become 5-4.

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“This one is on me tonight for sure, but at the same time you have got to take the positives and learn from the negatives,” Scott said.

Tyrone Taylor homered leading off the third to give the Mets their first run.

Taylor, who has been starting regularly since Starling Marte was placed on the injured list last week with a bone bruise in his right knee, has homered three times in his last seven games.

He played center field on this night with Harrison Bader on the bench after colliding with the outfield fence a day earlier.

Mark Vientos’ two-run blast in the fourth extended the Mets’ lead to 3-0.

It continued a recent rampage for Vientos , who owned a 1.077 OPS in his last 12 games entering play.

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Vientos has five homers since June 23 as a central figure in the Mets’ sizzling lineup. J.D. Martinez doubled in the inning before Vientos went deep.

Francisco Lindor’s two-run homer in the fifth put the Mets ahead 5-0.

The homer was Lindor’s second in as many games and gave him 15 for the season. Ben Gamel’s two-out double started the rally.

Scott didn’t allow a hit until the fourth on Jesse Winker’s two-out double.

The Nationals pulled within 5-1 on Ildemaro Vargas’ RBI single.

After Garcia’s three-run blast in the sixth, the Nationals tied it in the seventh on Lane Thomas’ RBI double against Diekman.

Before the inning was complete James Wood delivered an RBI single against Diekman that put the Mets in a 6-5 hole. Garcia homered in the eighth against Adcock.

“They are pretty good at putting the ball in play and fouling stuff off and making you work,” said Diekman, who was ahead in the count on all three batters that reached base against him. “The first one was 10 pitches and the balls were just noncompetitive. They grind out at-bats and then kind of make you hurt yourself and it snowballs.”

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