Wieters and Murphy calm Gonzalez, offense takes over in 8-3 win

NEW YORK - The offense and Gio Gonzalez have been consistent this season as the Nationals built a big lead against the Mets and the rest of the National League East.

Both constants were evident Thursday as the Nats took down the Mets 8-3 in the opener of a four-game series, winning for the fourth straight time at Citi Field.

The Nats' five-run fifth inning - highlighted by a two-run triple from Daniel Murphy and a two-run homer from Michael A. Taylor - chased Mets starter Robert Gsellman.

Bryce Harper's 17th homer, a solo shot in the first, got the scoring started early. Statcast measured the homer at 116.3 mph, making it the hardest hit by Harper since the Statcast era began in 2015.

The two homers pushed the Nats season total to 100 in just 66 games, fastest in team history. Harper's home run was a laser beam line drive over the right field wall, about 12 rows up. Manager Dusty Baker said blast reminded him of a Hank Aaron shot.

The Nats pounded out 12 hits, and have now scored 31 runs in their last two games against the Mets, and are 9-2 in their last 11 road games.

The middle of the order attacked the Mets. The third through sixth spots in the order combined for seven hits, three runs and four RBIs. But Baker said the reason why those spots were so successful was due to Trea Turner and Brian Goodwin setting the table.

"As soon as we get Trea going, it'll be tough for anybody to navigate, but you got to get guys in front of those guys," Baker said. "That's the secret here because you don't want them leading off the inning or you don't want the pitcher to be in the windup, you want him to be in the stretch. It's a great feeling when you know you have guys that can hit and they know they can hit."

Turner managed to get on base in the sixth and scored in front of Brian Goodwin's second double of the game. Murphy, who went 3-for-5, including a two-run triple, like what he sees from this duo.

"Goodie's been some kind of locked in," Murphy said. "He bangs one off the left-center field wall and then he comes back and gets a cutter from a lefty, slams it in the gap to the pull side. He's been swinging the bat really well. Trea, again, putting pressure on the defense. He's the one that got that inning going, he was able to score on Goodie's double to the pull side and kind of get that run back. So really good job by the offense tonight."

Gonzalez, who improved to 6-1 on the season, was very good again. He is now 10-1 at Citi Field in 15 career starts. He allowed back-to-back doubles in the fourth to Yoenis Céspedes and Jay Bruce, but not much else. It was the fourth straight quality start for Gonzalez: seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts.

Gonzalez credited catcjher Matt Wieters and second baseman Murphy for noticing the Mets strategy: trying to speed up the southpaw to the point of mistakes. Gonzalez did not let it happen.

"Today's work was cut out for me," Gonzalez said. "These guys were being very aggressive. They weren't letting me try get into a deep count or anything like that. They were trying to get going, working quick. Matt was quick to pay attention to that and try to switch up here and there.

"I have to give credit to Murphy. Murphy did a great job of paying attention, and kind of slowing the game down for me every time I looked back."

Incredibly, Gonzalez has now surrendered only 18 earned runs in 15 career starts at Citi Field over 95 2/3 innings. That works out to a career 1.69 ERA in Flushing.

"What stood out is he didn't have any walks and that's what permitted him to get into the seventh," Baker said. "He threw the ball great tonight. You like that when his tempo is good. Our defense was sharp and we got some timely hitting.

"I was a little worried early in the game. We had those runners on second and third and didn't get them in, and had a couple guys at second with nobody out and didn't advance them. But we kept grinding. And that's the secret."