No panicking for Nats after being swept out of New York

FLUSHING, N.Y. - After a disastrous weekend in New York, the Nationals find themselves deadlocked atop the division and in a dogfight with the Mets for the remaining two months of the season.

The finale unraveled in a flash for Jordan Zimmermann. The Mets unloaded with three homers off the right-hander in the third inning as New York went on to sweep the Nationals with a 5-2 win. To make matters worse, all the damage came with two outs against Zimmermann.

Curtis Granderson started the assault, launching a two-run shot off the façade in right. Daniel Murphy outdid Granderson with a towering solo blast deep into the upper deck. Two batters later, Lucas Duda bombed a two-run homer down the right field line.

"I hung a curveball to Granderson ... bad pitch," Zimmermann said. "And then I left a fastball middle for Murphy next pitch. And then the ball to Duda, I'm not sure how it's physically possible to hit that ball where I put it. I mean I put it right where I wanted to. I can't even be mad about that pitch. He's probably the hottest guy in baseball right now, and for him to hit the ball like he did for where it was located, you just gotta tip your cap."

That was all the offense Mets rookie Noah Syndergaard needed as the hard-throwing 22-year-old struck out nine over eight innings. The Nats only runs came on solo homers from Anthony Rendon and Yunel Escobar. Washington managed to score just five total runs while striking out a whopping 34 times in the three losses.

"Keep playing," said Bryce Harper. "Just keep doing what we're doing. We saw three of their horses, and they were on point, (hitting) on all cylinders. Hitting-wise, they were swinging it. Duda came through in three games and Wilmer Flores being able to do what he did the other night. We just gotta move forward.

"I think we're playing good ball. This stretch that we ran into this week-and-a-half has been pretty tough. We just gotta keep balling, keep doing what we're doing and know that we're going home. We play well at home. Hopefully, we get seven at home and go to the West Coast and have some fun."

Harper ended up 3-for-13 with no homers, no RBIs, three strikeouts and one game ejection in the crucial series. He along with the rest of the Nats lineup seemed overmatched at times facing hard-throwing right-handers Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Syndergaard over the weekend.

"They got three really good pitchers they threw at us," Nationals manager Matt Williams said. "They swung the bats extremely well. They're playing well. Lost opportunity ... I don't look at it that way. We're now in position to move forward for the last 60-ish games and see what we can do.

"We start tomorrow. We start with our homestand and getting back on our home turf and starting to win ballgames. It starts tomorrow. That's as far ahead as we look."

The Nationals were expected to run away with a weak NL East. But the Mets pitching kept them around and now they've added punch to their once floundering lineup. It measures up to be a tight battle between the two teams, who have six games remaining against each other, including the final three of the season back at Citi Field.

"It didn't go our way this weekend, but we're fine," Zimmermann said. "We're gonna bounce back. There's nobody in here that's panicking right now."