Harvey could pitch vs Yanks, Nats down the stretch — Mets GM

The sweep extended New York’s lead in the NL East to seven games over Washington.

Bryce Harper homered twice, giving him 36 this season. “Hopefully those games we play them in New York [the final weekend] won’t matter and we can celebrate early”. Jeurys Familia struck out the side for his 37th save, including Harper.

It was the first time since 2008 the Mets had swept a three-game series in Washington, and the first time since 2012 that New York came back to win three games in a row during a road series.

Cubs starter Jon Lester left after seven dominant innings.

Clayton Richard (3-1) took the loss. Godley (5-1) was sharp in his last start before heading to the bullpen, allowing a run on three hits.

Collins said he believes Harvey will have a strong performance in Tuesday’s start against Washington, with debate swirling on a potential innings limit that could limit his postseason availability. The Nationals scored a run in the eighth on another Harper homer, but the Mets added an insurance run in the ninth on Michael Conforto’s RBI single. The righthander likely will return to the mound sometime during the Subway Series, which begins September 18.

Ortiz connected off Drew Hutchison (13-4). Now he just completed managing what he described as the most important series of his career, and his confidence as a skipper has never been higher. The key word in that sentence, however, is “had” because Cespedes and his new team, the New York Mets, eliminated that clause from his contract on Tuesday.

If the Mets can keep a healthy distance between themselves and the Nats, the fact that the 26-year-old isn’t pitching down the stretch isn’t as big of a deal. He struck out nine and walked two.

However, the Blue Jays needed a lead-off triple from Josh Donaldson as part of a four-run 10th inning to eventually see off the Red Sox in what had been a nip-and-tuck game. The Pirates hold the top spot in the NL wild-card race. Votto went nose-to-nose with plate umpire Invoice Welke as he argued a referred to as strike within the eighth inning. “[Cespedes] hit a homer”. Bethancourt and Hector Olivera each had three hits.

Strasburg (8-7) was charged with three runs and five hits in 7 1-3 innings. In the 7th or 8th inning its 6.41. Logan Forsythe, Tim Beckham, J.P. Arencibia and Mikie Mahtook went deep for the Rays. “Last year, he had a two-week hiatus because of the shoulder injury”. Moya has been playing left field at Triple-A Toledo the last few weeks since the Cespedes trade. He hit the ball hard up the middle into center field for what should have been a two-run single.

Martin Prado drove in the other three runs for the Marlins.

Harper also hit a homer off Tyler Clippard in the eighth that sliced the lead to 4-3.

Storen now has 3.44 ERA for the season – it was below 2.00 for most of the first half of the year – and he must be counting down the days until he can rid himself of a Nationals uniform.