J.D. Martinez’s 10th-inning home run leads Mets to win over Nationals

WASHINGTON — After one of the hottest months in baseball, it suddenly feels like a battle of attrition for the New York Mets.

In the last week, the Mets have lost right fielder Starling Marte and right-handed reliever Drew Smith to injuries, and closer Edwin Diaz to suspension. Monday in Washington, the Mets played without star outfielder Brandon Nimmo, who fainted in his hotel room early in the morning and split his forehead open.

But J.D. Martinez put the depleted Mets on his back and carried them once again. His 10th inning, three-run go-ahead bomb off right-hander Hunter Harvey spurred a six-run surge that led the Amazins’ to a 9-7 win over the Washington Nationals on Monday night at Nationals Park.

The Mets (41-41) went down 2-0 in the third and went up 3-2 in the sixth before the Nats came back to tie it at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth. But the Mets poured it on in the 10th, picking up a big NL East win to start an eight-game road trip.

Harvey (2-4) hit Harrison Bader with a pitch to put two on in the top of the 10th, putting two on for Martinez. The slugger fouled off three pitches before getting a hold of a splitter and sending it 420 feet to straightaway center for his 10th of the season.

The Mets didn’t stop there, with Tyrone Taylor hitting a double and Francisco Alvarez scoring him on a triple. Alvarez’s fly ball went 379 feet, nearly going the distance for a home run. Instead, it hit the bullpen fence, registering as his first career triple.

Jordan Weems came in to stop the bleeding for the Nats (39-45), only to give up a two-run homer to Jose Iglesias.

Washington came back in the bottom of the 10th, taking four runs off left-hander Tyler Jay. Reed Garrett allowed an inherited runner to score before finally shutting the door for the save (four).

It was a big night for the Nats, with the club calling up their top-overall prospect and the No. 3 prospect in baseball, outfielder James Wood. A local product from nearby Olney, Maryland, Wood singled off left-hander David Peterson in his first career big-league at-bat in the second inning and represented the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.

Wood sent a slow roller short of the mound to lead off the ninth and left-hander Jake Diekman (2-2) overthrew first base, allowing the rookie to reach second. Diekman retired the next three in order to get out of the inning.

Right-hander Dedniel Nuñez nearly had the Mets out of the eighth inning with the lead still intact, but the Nationals tied it at 3-3 with two outs. Right-hander Kyle Finnegan sat the Mets down in order in the ninth.

Down 2-0 in the sixth, the Mets patiently put together three runs. Bader, hitting from Nimmo’s No. 2 spot, led with a single off left-handed starter MacKenzie Gore and promptly swiped second. Gore then got Martinez and Pete Alonso out, before the Nats went to the bullpen for right-hander Derek Law.

It was a smart move on paper. Mark Vientos was up and the right-handed third baseman has much better splits against lefties than righties. But Vientos sliced a single to left field to score Bader and cut the Washington lead in half, 2-1.

Taylor reached on an error when his grounder went right through the legs of shortstop C.J. Abrams. With two on and two out, Alvarez drove them home with a double to right-center field. The Mets went up 3-2.

Gore was charged with one earned run on five hits, walked one and struck out eight. Law was charged with two two unearned runs, but was taken off the hook for the loss after the Nats tied the game in the bottom of the eighth.

Peterson allowed two runs in a tough third inning, but settled in from there. The two runs came on seven hits, and Peterson walked one and struck out two over 6 1/3 innings.

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