Justin Verlander earned his 250th career victory as the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals 5-2 on Sunday after trading Max Scherzer to Texas.
Francisco Lindor homered and had three hits for the fourth-place Mets (50-55), who took three of four from last-place Washington. Pete Alonso drove in two runs.
Verlander (6-5) allowed one run in 6 innings to become the 49th major league pitcher to reach 250 wins.
Alonso had an RBI single and lifted one of New York’s two sacrifice flies in a three-run third against former teammate Trevor Williams (5-6).
Lindor homered in consecutive games for the fourth time this year. He reached base four times. Jeff McNeil hit a go-ahead triple and Omar Narváez also had a sacrifice fly in the third.
Making his 498th career start, Verlander gave up five hits in his third straight win. He walked off the mound to a nice ovation and tipped his cap to the crowd of 33,861 before accepting handshakes from teammates in the dugout.
The Mets signed Verlander to an $86.7 million, two-year contract in December shortly after Jacob deGrom signed a $185 million, five-year deal with Texas. That reunited Verlander and Scherzer, a pair of three-time Cy Young Award winners who were teammates in Detroit from 2010-14.
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