Desmond, Gonzalez homer off Colon (Nats win 5-1)

By Pete Kerzel

Nationals

April 02, 2014, 4:11pm

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For three innings, ageless Bartolo Colon tamed the Nationals on one hit. But in the fourth inning, the visitors' bats have awakened. With one out, Jayson Werth doubled and scored on Adam LaRoche's double into the left field corner.

That wiped out New York's 1-0 lead, courtesy of David Wright's first-inning sac fly, which scored Juan Lagares, who tripled off lefty Gio Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, who came into the game 4-0 with a 1.64 ERA in his last five games at Citi Field, has yielded three hits and fanned two in three innings.

Update: Ian Desmond led off the fifth inning by hitting Colon's first pitch into the stands in left-center for a 2-1 Nationals lead. Two batters later, Gonzalez went deep, crushing a ball off the fencing in front of the left field seats to make it 3-1. The blast was Gonzalez's third career homer.

Update II: Make it 4-1 Nationals in the seventh. Back-to-back doubles by Denard Span and Anthony Rendon couldn't score a run - Span had to hold up on Rendon's blast, which died at the wall in center but was easily catchable . But what the Nats couldn't do, the Mets helped along. Span scampered home on a wild pitch by reliever Gonzalez Germen to score the fourth run of the night.

Gonzalez is done after six innings, and leaves in position to claim his first win of the year. Drew Storen is on for the seventh.

Gonzalez allowed three hits, walked one and struck out six. He threw 91 pitches, 60 for strikes.

Update III: Span tripled with one out in the ninth and scored on a groundout by Rendon to extend the lead to 5-1.