Steven Strasburg remained unbeaten with an 11-strikeout performance, and the Washington Nationals hit three of their season-high five home runs off struggling Matt Harvey in a 7-4 victory over the New York Mets on Tuesday night.
Strasburg (8-0) gave up two runs and four hits over 6 2/3 innings in defeating Harvey and the Mets for the second time in six days. Strasburg has five games this season with at least 10 strikeouts and 26 over his seven-year career.
Harvey (3-7) stumbled through a third straight ineffective start, allowing five runs and eight hits over five rocky innings. The right-hander has yielded 16 earned runs and 31 hits over his last three outings.
Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon hit successive solo shots to put Washington ahead in the fourth inning, and Daniel Murphy added a two-run drive off his former teammate in the fifth for a 5-1 lead.
The three homers allowed by Harvey tied a career high. After going 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA last season, Harvey, a former first-round draft pick, hasn’t gone more than six innings in any of his 10 starts and has an unsightly 6.08 ERA.
Ben Revere connected off Antonio Bastardo in the seventh and Wilson Ramos went deep against Jim Henderson in the eighth for Washington.
Asdrubal Cabrera and Eric Campbell homered for the Mets, whose four-game winning streak ended.
Making his major league debut, New York third baseman Ty Kelly went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.
Strasburg retired the first 10 batters, six by strikeout, before Cabrera homered into the Nationals bullpen beyond the wall in right field.
Zimmerman and Rendon answered in the bottom half, and Bryce Harper delivered a sacrifice fly in the fifth before Murphy went deep.
Campbell hit his first home run of the season in the ninth off Shawn Kelley.
New York relievers had a run of 16 1/3 scoreless innings over five games before Bastardo gave up Revere’s first homer of the season.
Harper went 0 for 3 and is 4 for 30 since May 13. His batting average is .246.
Murphy had his major league-leading 23rd multihit game of the season.
Nationals righty Matt Belisle (calf strain) returned to Washington for the day after launching his rehabilitation assignment Monday with Class A Potomac.
“I saw Matt in the video room,” manager Dusty Baker said. “He was kind of smiling. That’s a good sign. Usually he’s kind of stoic in his look.”
Steven Matz (6-1, 2.81 ERA) brings a six-game winning streak into Wednesday’s series finale for the Mets. He has never lost a game on the road (5-0) or faced the Nationals.
The Nationals’ Tanner Roark (3-3, 2.89) is 5-0 with a 3.05 ERA in 11 lifetime appearances against the Mets.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.