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Mets, Nats play rubber match in D.C.

May 18, 2014 - 2:39 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Zack Wheeler aims for his first win in more than a month when the New York Mets play the rubber match of a three-game series with the Washington Nationals.

The Mets snapped a nine-game skid versus the Nationals on Saturday with a 5-2 triumph, and now Wheeler tries to break his long slide. The righty is 0-1 over his last five starts and hasn't won since April 14 at Arizona. Wheeler is coming off a no-decision at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday when he gave up seven hits and five runs in 4 1/3 innings of a 12-7 Mets triumph. Wheeler tied a career-high by walking six batters.

In four career starts against the Nationals, Wheeler is 1-3 with a 4.07 ERA.

Jordan Zimmermann counters for Washington. The righty, who turns 28 on Friday, is 1-0 over his last four outings. That includes a no-decision in his last start, Monday at Arizona when he gave up 10 hits and five runs covering 5 2/3 innings. He's 4-5 with a 3.22 ERA in 16 games against the Mets.

Yesterday, Juan Lagares homered, drove in three runs and provided his usual gold-glove caliber defense to help the Mets to victory.

Eric Campbell drove in two runs for the Mets, who snapped a three-game losing skid. Lagares, Campbell and Daniel Murphy all had two hits and scored once.

Bartolo Colon (3-5) had Washington off-balance for most of the afternoon, tossing eight strong innings of five-hit, two-run ball with five strikeouts. Jenrry Mejia, who won his first three decisions of the season as a starter, pitched out of the pen for the third time and recorded his first major league save with a scoreless ninth. Mejia had just one save in his professional career -- a minor league save in 2007 while playing in the Dominican summer league -- to this point.

"When he was down in the zone he made big pitches," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "He pitched ahead."

Washington had won the first four meetings between the two clubs this season.

The recent struggles continued for Washington starter Gio Gonzalez (3-4), who surrendered seven runs on nine hits against the Athletics in his last start. It wasn't much better this time around, as Gonzalez exited after yielding five runs in three innings to absorb the loss.

"Inconsistent, way too many pitches, missing the zone, not throwing it where he wanted to," were some of the words Nationals manager Matt Williams used to describe the performance of Gonzalez. "If you get behind at this level you pay for it."