Mets Sweep Nats; Sole Possesion of 1st Place.

METS 9

NATIONALS 3

Yes folks, the Mets are hot!?!? Believe it or not! The Mets are also in sole possesion of first place in the NL East! Believe that or not!!!!

One again, the Mets put together another dominating performance against the Nationals, beating up and sweeping the worst team in the NL, exteding the Mets winning streak to three games, and temporarily putting the concerns of this club into the rear view mirror.

The Mets got it going in the fourth as they scratched out two runs on a Carlos Delgado grounded out to short to bring home Argenies Reyes to take a 1-0 lead. Later, Carlos Beltran hit a sac. fly to center to drive home David Wright to make it 2-0.

Fast forward to the fifth inning, with a man on, Brian Schnieder hit his third homerun of the year to left field, as the ball feel into a bunch of plants that lined the outfield wall. 4-0 Metropolitans.

Oliver Perez pitched well. He held the Nationals scoreless through the first six innings of the game tonight, but got into to trouble in the seventh as he surrendered three runs to get Washington back into the game at 5-3. Perez was removed from the game for Joe Smith who proceeded to get out of the inning, getting Ronnie Belliard to fly out to center. Perez got the win; he improves to 9-7 on the year.

Still, the Mets offense was not done, adding four runs in the ninth inning to put the game away for good. Dan Murphy and Fernado Tatis started the inning with back - to - back hits. Later, Damion Easley singled up the middle to drive home both Murphy and Tatis.

Jose Reyes singled, and David Wright reached on an error by Belliard to load the bases. Next, Carlos Delgado hit the ball into the shift, but Emilo Bonifaco threw the ball away to allow Easley and Reyes to score. 9-3 New York. Ballgame OVER!

The Mets are a half a game ahead of Philadelphia for first place - pending the result of the late game between the Phillies and the Dodgers.