QUEENS, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 20 -

The Washington Nationals earned their fifth win over the Mets tonight on the heels of an insane 11th inning. After a three-run lead was blown by the bullpen, Washington bounced back to win the game and ensure they would not have a 100-loss season in 2025.

Washington’s pitching set the tone early. Cade Cavalli fired five scoreless innings (5 H, 1 BB, 3 K) on 76 pitches, navigating traffic with a steady fastball and a late-biting breaker. After Konnor Pilkington and Clayton Beeter put up clean seventh-inning frames, José A. Ferrer entered for six critical outs and nearly saw it slip away, allowing a two-run double to Mark Vientos in the eighth and Juan Soto’s game-tying RBI single in the ninth. Even so, Ferrer stranded the potential winning run to force extras. In the 10th, Sauryn Lao wriggled out of a two-on, none-out jam to earn the win, and lefty PJ Poulin slammed the door in the 11th, striking out Soto to end it for his first big-league save.

At the plate, rookie Daylen Lile owned the night. He produced Washington’s first-inning run with a bases-loaded fielder’s choice and then made the moment of the season for the Nats in the 11th, turning on a Tyler Rogers sinker and sprinting for a two-run inside-the-park homer to center. The ball bounded off the wall past Cedric Mullins, and Lile never broke stride, sliding home with speed. Earlier, the Nationals built a 3–0 lead by capitalizing on Mets miscues: Dylan Crews scored when Riley Adams’s single skipped under Soto’s glove, and Adams later trotted home on a Nolan McLean wild pitch. Washington mustered just six hits on the night, but Lile’s two knocks and three RBIs were the difference.

The win snaps a five-game skid and pushes Washington to 63–92, mathematically eliminating the threat of a 100-loss season (even a season-ending losing streak caps losses at 99). It also halted the Mets’ late push long enough to keep New York sweating in the NL Wild Card race after they had rallied to tie it in the ninth. Cavalli’s five zeroes and Lile’s star turn felt like a snapshot of the core Washington hopes to ride forward beyond this year.

Up next:

The series finale on Sunday at Citi Field. The Mets list left-hander Sean Manaea, while the Nationals counter with right-hander Jake Irvin. For Washington, Irvin’s task is simple and significant: build on Cavalli’s template, get ahead early, and let the defense and the improving back-end arms handle the rest. For the lineup, keeping pressure on with speed and contact, especially from the rookie trio of Lile, Crews, and James Wood, will be key against a veteran southpaw who lives on soft contact. First pitch is scheduled for 1:40 p.m. ET.