To David Wright, there's nothing mysterious about the manner in which the Washington Nationals dominated the Mets this week.
"We just got outplayed, outpitched, outhit," he said. "You get swept when every facet of the game is played by the other team."
New York's futility against Washington at Citi Field goes back a lot longer than one three-game series: Stifled by Stephen Strasburg, the Mets lost a club-record 11th straight home game to one team, 4-1 Thursday night.
The Mets dropped 10 in a row to the Braves at Shea Stadium from 1991-92.
Adam LaRoche and Bryce Harper both connected after walks by Dillon Gee (4-5). LaRoche homered in the first and Harper hit a long drive to right-center in the fourth.
Other than the two long balls, Gee gave up only two singles — both to Desmond — in six innings.
"The command's been on and off and I just keep working on it but there's nothing really I can pinpoint that's making that a problem," said Gee, who matched a season high with four walks.
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Strasburg (9-10) gave up three hits and an unearned run, improving to 2-8 in 13 road starts this season. He struck out eight and walked two.
Rafael Soriano was perfect in the ninth for his second straight save in the series and 28th overall. Washington increased its NL East lead to six games over Atlanta.
The Nationals hit seven homers in the series, outscoring the Mets 14-4 and continuing a lopsided trend during a streak in Queens that began June 30 last year. Washington has outscored New York 74-21 during the run at Citi Field, which now tops the Montreal Expos' 10 road wins in a row against the Chicago Cubs from 1982-83.
The Nationals are 25-4 at the Mets' home since Sept. 12, 2011. The teams play four more times this year in New York and three more in Washington, where the Nationals have won four of six meetings. They lead the season series 10-2.
"We played really well here," manager Matt Williams said. "Now we've got to go do it at home."
After a throwing error by Desmond at shortstop in the fourth, Lucas Duda hit a sacrifice fly that was caught just in front of the right-center wall.
