New York Mets Power Their Way Into First Place In NL East

The New York Mets came into their three game weekend series against the Washington Nationals with dreams of first place, and on Sunday their dreams came true with a 5-2 win. The victory gave the Mets a series sweep and a tie for first place in the National League East.

The Mets used power and solid starting pitching to silence the Nationals throughout the series. On Sunday Lucas Duda launched his ninth home run in his last eight games to give the Mets a 5-1 lead. Curtis Granderson and Daniel Murphy also went yard for the Mets. Noah Syndergaard pitched eight strong innings allowing two runs while striking out nine. The two runs came on solo home runs from Anthony Rendon and Yunel Escobar. New Mets closer Tyler Clippard exacted some revenge on his old team and pitched a scoreless ninth inning to close out the game and collect his first save in a Mets uniform. New York Times reporter Tim Rohan tweeted Syndergaard’s feelings at the moment.

"It's so much fun to be a Met right now," Noah Syndergaard said

— Tim Rohan (@TimRohan) August 3, 2015

Mets manager Terry Collins had nothing but praise for his rookie pitcher after the game. The New York Mets Twitter feed shared some of Collins thoughts.

"He has been really impressive." – Collins on @Noahsyndergaard pic.twitter.com/88Pwt1ItGz

— New York Mets (@Mets) August 3, 2015

Jordan Zimmermann struggled allowing three home runs for first time since August of 2013. He took the loss, which dropped his record to 8-7 on the season.

New York has to be happy that they took all three games even though their big new slugger didn’t really add a whole lot to the offense. As reported on earlier here at the Inquisitr the Mets acquired Yoenis Cespedes at the trade deadline, but he had just one hit, a single, in two starts.

The Nationals will head back home and will face the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Mets will head to Miami to take on the lowly Marlins. New York and Washington still have six games against each other this season. They will play a three game set in early September in Washington and then they will close the season with another three game set, this time in New York.

Who do you think will win the N.L. East the New York Mets or the Washington Nationals?

[Image by Rich Schultz/Getty Images]