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Gonzalez, Nats top Mets

Apr 3, 2014 - 6:01 AM Flushing, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Gio Gonzalez homered in his first start of the season for the second straight year, and the Nationals hurler was just as impressive on the mound as Washington downed the New York Mets, 5-1, in the second installment of a season-opening three-game series.

Gonzalez (1-0) surrendered a run in the first inning when Juan Lagares led off with a triple into the right-field gap and scored on David Wright's sac fly.

"Once he established his fastball command everything just kind of worked off that. He did that tonight, settled in and was able to use that command to his advantage. He was good," said Nationals manager Matt Williams of his starter.

The right-hander settled down from there, though, allowing just two more hits and one walk over six frames while adding some insurance with his bat.

Ian Desmond broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning with a leadoff homer off Mets offseason acquisition Bartolo Colon, and Gonzalez followed two batters later by clobbering Colon's high fastball over the left-field fence for his third career home run.

Colon (0-1) lasted six frames and was charged with three runs on nine hits to take the loss for the Mets, who lost in 10 innings on Opening Day.

Consecutive one-out doubles by Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche tied the game in the fourth, and Denard Span scored a pair of runs in the later innings to give Washington some breathing room.

Span sped home on a Gonzalez Germen wild pitch in the seventh, then tripled and scored on Anthony Rendon's groundout in the ninth.

The Mets ran themselves out of a run in the fifth when Ruben Tejada tried scoring from first on a Lagares gapper to left. The relay throw home easily beat Tejada to the plate, and the runner, not wanting to break MLB's new rules on running over the catcher, surrendered himself for the final out.

Lagares's double was New York's third and final hit.

"We're not going to get too down over what's happened the first two games," Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson said. "Things can change quickly."

Game Notes

Gonzalez also went deep against the Marlins one year ago Thursday ... Werth had four of Washington's 13 hits ... Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard and Craig Stammen all pitched a scoreless inning of relief for the Nats ... The Mets only had two official at-bats with runners in scoring position ... Colon, 40, signed a 2-year, $20 million deal with the Mets following his 18-win campaign with Oakland in 2013 ... New York has struck out 31 times over the first two games -- eight more than the most in team history.