Too many homers help Mets down Nats 5-3

The Mets' homers were the difference Saturday, as they beat the Nationals 5-3 to take the series.

Michael Conforto hit a pair of homers, Jose Reyes connected in the ninth inning, and the Mets used five relievers to keep the Nationals at bay for their second win in a row in the weekend series. It was the first series loss at home for the Nats against the Mets since last May.

Manager Dusty Baker said the critical round-trippers for the Mets, especially a two-run shot by Conforto off of starter Stephen Strasburg, were too much to overcome. The Conforto homer made it 3-1. He hit another one in the eighth.

"Stras was good except they kept hitting the ball out of the ballpark," Baker said. "Michael Conforto continues to haunt us. They live and die by the homer, and we couldn't keep them in the ballpark. Stras was good. He was very good."

Strasburg pitched seven solid innings, allowing only three runs on six hits. The biggest was Conforto's two-run shot in the fifth inning on a 3-1 count. Strasburg said that's a whole different mindset if the count was 2-2.

"Absolutely. Yeah, changes it," Strasburg said. "But those will happen during the course of the season, so I just got to learn from it and make a better pitch 3-1."

Strasburg on the Conforto homer that changed the game: What was he trying to do with two outs and Travis d'Arnaud on base?

"Yeah. Didn't get in there enough," he said. "Made a good pitch before. Happens."

Leading 1-0 in the fourth, the Nationals had a good chance to have a big inning after Jayson Werth walked against Mets starter Zack Wheeler. After Werth stole second, the ball got away for a moment and was picked up by shortstop Asdrúbal Cabrera. In the process, Cabrera collided with Werth, who went down and appeared to be blocked momentarily from heading to third.

Once Werth got up, he ran to third and was easily thrown at third. Werth claimed second base umpire Angel Hernandez had called obstruction, so he felt he was entitled to third base.

"He yelled obstruction when it happened," Werth said. "When I went back and looked at the play, I saw that (Neil ) Walker fielded the ball. When I got tackled out there, I was obstructed on seeing he had the ball. But you're taught, all growing up, playing at this level as long as I have, you're taught that if you run into obstruction, you're taught to just continue on. If (it) wasn't obstruction, I would have seen that Walker got the ball and there was nowhere to go. So I was just kind of doing what I was taught."

Werth said it reminded of a similar play in the 2013 World Series between the Cardinals and the Red Sox at third base.

"He just kind of kept going. He was out by quite a bit, but they just kind of gave him the bag," Werth said. "That's kind of what I thought the rule was all this time. I talked to Angel and Ted Barrett out there, and they explained that there's two types. I still think under the situation, because of the obstruction, I thought third base was mine so I continued on. That's not what they decided on."

Werth felt the umpires might have made an assumption on the play, instead of staying with Hernandez's original obstruction call.

"I don't know how they can assume - if there wasn't obstruction, you're assuming a lot there," Werth said. "If a guy hits a ground rule double, they don't ever assume that a guy went first to home. You can't assume that. There's just a lot of assumptions since then. Maybe the rules changed since '13. There's been a lot of rule changes the last few years. It's hard to keep up."

Baker went out to argue the play and came back even more confused following an explanation from Hernandez.

"I saw him point obstruction, and then he gave some jive explanation that really didn't make sense to me," Baker said.

The Nationals most of their offense from Ryan Zimmerman and Michael A. Taylor. Zimmerman went 3-for-4 with a solo shot and three RBIs. Taylor went 3-for-5 with a run scored.

Zimmerman has now hit 11 homers in the month of April, which ties his best career mark in a month. The last time he hit 11 homers in a month was September 2013.

He believes being healthy and being able to build strength from spring training might be a part of this hit start. Zimmerman is now hitting .410 on the season.

"Ending last year healthy and ending the year well, and I think going down there and not having anything to worry about or rehab and just being able to have a normal spring training, haven't really done that in three years or so," Zimmerman said. "Just being healthy, I think, is the hardest thing. Once you play for a while, it's harder and harder to feel good.

"Right now, we got a good routine, good stuff going with the trainers and the strength people and just got to keep working at it."

After the game, Baker said he did not have an update from the MRI results on injured center fielder Adam Eaton. Baker said he expects the news by Sunday. Eaton appeared to injure his ankle and knee at first base in the ninth inning of Friday's 7-5 loss to the Mets. He has been placed on the 10-day disabled list with a left knee strain.

"On Eaton, no. We're waiting to make a determination tomorrow," Baker said. "The doctor's supposed to let us know tomorrow."