Conforto's clutch HR 'much-needed' for Mets

NEW YORK -- Michael Conforto saw only one pitch Saturday night at Citi Field. Could it be the one that turns the Mets’ season around?

Conforto belted a pinch-hit three-run home run in the seventh inning, pushing the Mets to a 5-3 win over the Nationals that brought New York’s four-game losing streak to an end.

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“It was a much-needed hit,” said outfielder Kevin Pillar, who accounted for the rest of the Mets’ scoring with a pair of solo home runs. “It’s the hit we’ve been talking about, we've been needing for the last two weeks. He stepped up and got it.”

The Mets’ victory -- only their third in the past 15 games -- moved them within 7 1/2 games of the National League East-leading Braves. More importantly, it put them in position to win a series on Sunday, something they haven’t done since they swept the Nats at Citi Field from Aug. 10-12.

“It gets a lot tougher when you look at the standings and you say, ‘We’ve got to win this many games,’” Conforto said. “To simplify things, you just look at tomorrow; we’ve got to go out there and beat the Nationals. That's what we're focused on.”

Mets starter Marcus Stroman worked out of a bases-loaded jam without allowing a run in the first, but the Nationals got to him for a pair of runs in the second. Stroman settled in after that, holding Washington scoreless through the rest of his six-inning outing.

Pillar kept the Mets in the game with his pair of solo home runs against Nationals starter Sean Nolin in the third and fifth innings, but that was all the offense New York had through six.

“I feel like I just had a good approach today,” Pillar said. “I didn't even really know I was playing until I got here at about 4:30 today. Sometimes, that's a blessing; you don't overthink.”

It was shaping up as another brutal loss for the Mets after the Nationals took a 3-2 lead in the seventh, with the go-ahead run crossing the plate courtesy of a Trevor May wild pitch. New York had dropped each of its previous eight one-run contests, and given the overall lack of offense, the slim deficit felt far greater.

“To be honest with you, it hasn't been fun the last couple weeks,” Conforto said. “We're a team that we feel like is a playoff team, and we haven't been playing that way.”

Jeff McNeil singled off Ryne Harper to lead off the bottom of the seventh, then Pillar was plunked in the back, giving the Mets a pair of baserunners with nobody out.

That should have been cause for optimism, but given the Mets’ woeful performance this month with runners in scoring position -- they entered the game with a .170 average (32-for-188) in those situations in August, then went hitless in their first four chances Saturday -- a rally was far from certain. When Patrick Mazeika popped up a sacrifice-bunt attempt for an easy first out, the uneasy crowd of 27,870 felt an all-too-familiar sense of dread.

Conforto -- who was out of the lineup against the left-handed Nolin -- pinch-hit for May, swatting Mason Thompson’s first pitch over the left-center-field wall for the first pinch-hit homer of his career. The three-run shot gave the Mets a 5-3 lead, marking only the second time they had held a lead over their past five games.

“That's the hit that we've been waiting for. That's the one that we unfortunately haven't gotten in the last week or so,” said Conforto, who gave an animated fist pump as he rounded first base. “To come through in that spot for my team, coming off the bench, just trying to stay ready, that's where that emotion comes from.”

By the time Seth Lugo and Edwin Díaz each pitched a scoreless inning to finish off the Nationals, the Mets had not only ended their four-game skid, but also a seven-game home skid dating back to Aug. 12. Now comes the hard part: carrying the momentum of Saturday’s dramatic win into Sunday and beyond as the Mets try to get back into the NL East race.

“We talk about what we want to accomplish. Sometimes you have to see it to believe it, and we were able to accomplish that today,” Pillar said. “I think our belief in ourselves, it takes a win like that for you to fully buy in and see it happen. We came up with a big hit, we got great pitching today, we played great defense. It's just something we’ve got to build off of.”

“It's just a great overall team win,” Conforto added. “Hopefully, we can make this the start of something special.”