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Washington Nationals’ lineup for today’s series finale in Citi Field...

Dusty Baker and the Nationals try to add to their lead in the NL East in this afternoon’s series finale with the Mets in Citi Field.

By Patrick Reddington
Washington Nationals v New York Mets Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

With Saturday’s win, the Washington Nationals improved to 6-0 in Citi Field this season, with wins in nine of their last eleven games in the New York Mets’ home.

Dusty Baker talked after the Nationals’ win about how they responded when the Mets threatened to get back in the game late on Saturday afternoon with Adam Lind’s two-run shot in the eighth after New York made it a two-run game, and Anthony Rendon’s RBI double driving in a run to give Washington a three-run lead after the Mets scored two in the home-half of the eighth.

“That’s what you’ve got to do against those Mets,” Baker said, “cause you know they can hit that ball out of the ballpark, and you know they’re not going to quit. You know this is a big game for them to win today, because god forbid they win tomorrow then we leave out of here the same way we came in, and with [Jacob] deGrom pitching tomorrow, that’s always tough and the only consolation would have been four games off the schedule, so now hopefully we can push it back to where it was a week ago before we had our bad streak.”

Baker got big games from his bench players, including Lind, who went 1 for 4 with his sixth home run of the season, and backup catcher Jose Lobaton, who went 2 for 3 with his second blast of 2017. He’s hit both in the Mets’ home.

“It’s big because Loby, he’s been working,” the Nats’ skipper told reporters, “and it was big because last time he hit a home run was here in New York, which was a while ago.

“So he’ll probably want to stay here in New York, but we’ve got to go after the game tomorrow, so that was big, he blocked some balls in the dirt and called a very good game, kept the pitchers calm and especially with our catching corps, he’s going to catch two or three days a week so we really need some offense from that position.”

As for Lind, who is now 31 for 90 (.344/.413/.622) with seven doubles and six home runs in 42 games and 102 plate appearances, and just keeps hitting home runs?

“That’s fine with me,” Baker said, “and I was hoping that he would hit one in the ninth or at least in the gap, and at least give us some insurance runs, because they were slow-walking us down and so we hadn’t scored in a while, we needed to score some more.”

Neither players is in the lineup for the series finale in Citi Field, as the Nationals try for seven straight in New York...

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR TODAY’S GAME WITH THE METS:

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