WASHINGTON — Crossing five time zones and the Atlantic Ocean, the Mets were concerned about the Wednesday-into-Thursday redeye flight to London.
Carlos Mendoza wanted his team to sleep on the way there, knowing the group would be arriving across the pond in the middle of the day.
Before leaving, the Mets played as if sleep should come easily; as if they had nothing to make them toss and turn at night.
4
An all-Luis battery (Severino and Torrens) was excellent, as was the Mets’ overall defense and overall offense, in a well-played, 9-1 destruction at Nationals Park.
For the first time since April 15-17 against the Pirates, the Mets have swept an opponent in a three-game series.
“We’ve won three games in a row, and we’ve got a chance to win four,” said Severino, who added that the team is playing its best baseball of the season. “That’s huge for us.
“I was telling the guys: When we combine hitting and pitching at the same time, it’s huge.”
All it takes is a brief run to make a team relevant in the National League.
After winning five of seven, the Mets (27-35) moved to 3 ¹/₂ games back of a wild card before late games Wednesday and before beginning a set against the Phillies in Europe.
It is possible that a two-day break has come at the wrong time, but the Mets — who have finished a sprint of 13 games in 13 days and 26 games in 27 days — will take a long plane ride, a breather and, they hope, momentum.
4
“For us to come here and get the sweep,” Mendoza said after just the Mets’ second three-game sweep this season, “there’s some good momentum going.”
In some ways, the Mets played in the series finale as if they hoped they would play all season.
After a 1-hour, 25-minute rain delay that could throw off some pitchers, Severino provided both length (a season-high-tying eight innings) and excellence (allowing just one run, seven hits and no walks), again looking like a bargain of a free-agent signing.
He has at times struggled to go deeper into games, but the former Yankee otherwise has revived his career and reduced his ERA to 3.25.
Against a free-swinging Nationals team, Severino pitched smarter rather than harder.
“Right now I’m pitching to win,” said the former strikeout artist who only punched out four. “Before I was thinking, ‘I got to strike out this guy.’ Right now I’m just thinking: ‘It’s going to be soft contact, and it’s going to be an out.’ ”
4
Behind him, the Mets played as well as they have all season. Pete Alonso, whose bat has been quiet, made noise with his glove instead on a few plays Mendoza called “great.”
He stuck out his glove on a smashed ground ball down the line from Keibert Ruiz and stopped a potential double, getting the out at first; he dove to his right to take a hit away from Joey Gallo; he threw up his glove to catch a line drive from Eddie Rosario in what became a double play.
Severino’s catcher, Torrens, contributed defensively, too, cutting down Jesse Winker trying to steal second for just the Mets’ 10th caught stealing in 79 tries this year.
Torrens represents one emergence the Mets could not have envisioned a few months ago. A trade pickup from the Yankees last week, the 28-year-old led the way with a pair of home runs on another breakout day from the Mets’ bats.
Every hitter in the lineup recorded at least one hit on a night they finished with 11, the fifth time in their past seven games they reached double-digits.
“I thought the offense did a hell of a job, 1-through-9,” Mendoza said after the Mets built a two-run cushion through five then blew the game away in the sixth.
4
Francisco Lindor followed Torrens’ second solo shot, in that sixth, with a home run of his own. After RBI hits from Mark Vientos, Jose Iglesias and Harrison Bader, the Mets had scored six runs in the frame, and the only drama remaining was whether Severino could toss a complete game.
A long eighth inning cost him that chance, but the Mets only asked the bullpen for one inning from Danny Young. The other relievers could rest.
With an overnight, roughly six-hour trip awaiting the Mets, the rest of the group could sleep easy, too.
