Nationals put nip in 12, defeated in Scherzer's candidacy for Cy Young

WASHINGTON – Max Scherzer's curriculum vitae for the NL Young Award will have many brilliant ornaments, but 20 wins will not be among them.

The Mets may have helped teammate Jacob deGrom win the award by dropping Scherzer's ERA on Thursday and keeping the Nationals ace at 17 wins with two starts remaining.

The rest of the night worked for the Mets, but it took time: the sacrifice race of Jose Lobaton, who won the 12th inning, scored the decisive run in a 5-4 win at the Nationals Park.

DeGrom, who leads the major leagues with an ERA of 1.78 – but with a record of 8-9 – should participate in Mets Friday.

Scherzer, who has won the last two Cy Young Awards, saw his ERA go from 2.53 to 2.57 after giving three earned runs on five hits and two walks in seven innings, with 13 strikeouts. Michael Conforto and Jay Bruce had consecutive returns in the match for the Mets vs. Scherzer score.

"We shoot for Jake, so these games against [the Phillies’ Aaron] Nola and Scherzer are bigger for us, "said Conforto.

Scherzer leads the NL with 290 strikeouts and deGrom is second with 251. Scherzer launched 213 innings / in the 202 of deGrom.

Anthony Swarzak got a 4-2 lead in the eighth end and allowed the only two batters he faced to reach the base. Juan Soto's double, Robert Gsellman, led both rounds to end Jason Vargas' strike.

Vargas rolled into the sixth with a one-shot shutout before allowing a two-run homer with Anthony Rendon leading the Mets to 3-2. The blast was the 100th of Rendon's career in his major league and extended his series of goals to 28 games.

Seth Lugo got the final in the sixth, after Vargas was retired. In total, the southpaw gave three hits and two points in 5 ings / ings with eight outs and two ballads. He continued on a good start for Vargas, who has an ERA of 3.11 in his last seven starts.

"I had command of the strike zone for the most part," Vargas said.

The Conforto circuit, a two-run race, was his 27th game this season. The circuit gave the Conforto 24 points produced in September, extending its lead in MLB for the month.

The Bruce RBI single in the eighth offered the Mets their fourth round.

Manager Mickey Callaway was sent off in the 10th inning for arguing for a referee strike from D.J. Reyburn. The ejection was Callaway's second this season.