Mets’ Bartolo Colon Celebrates 43rd Birthday Early With 7-1 Rout Of Nationals

Bartolo Colon allowed one run on five hits and David Wright fired a three-run blast in the third inning to lead the New York Mets to a 7-1 victory over the Washington Nationals in the series opener at Nationals Park on Monday.

Mets’ Bartolo Colon Celebrates 43rd Birthday Early With 7-1 Rout

Colon, who turned 43 on Tuesday, walked to the plate and told Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos there was no chance he was hitting a home run Monday night. The Dominican Mets right-hander, who hit his first career homer in 19 seasons earlier this month, actually told Ramos he wasn’t going to swing at all.

“He threw me that change-up,” Colon said after going hitless against Washington. “I said, ‘No, I promise you, throw it right down the middle. I am not going to swing.'”

Colon has been suffering from a sore lower back for almost two weeks. He was the only Met who wasn’t swinging for the fences against Nationals lefty Gio Gonzalez. 

Yoenis Cespedes hit his 15th homer of the season with one out in the fifth, which gave him the major league lead, and Neil Walker followed with his 11th of the season. It was the seventh time this season the Mets have hit back-to-back home runs.

“It was nice to see, really is,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “Gio has been pitching great, but we went up there, we put some very good at-bats on him. I thought David’s home run really kick-started us. Again, like he does.”

Cespedes passed the Chicago White Sox’s Todd Frazier and the Colorado Rockies’ Nolan Arenado to gain the lead in the home run race. He leads the National League in RBI with 36 and has driven in 33 over his last 32 games.

The Mets followed Wright’s homer, his fifth of the season, with three straight singles off Gonzalez, including Asdrubal Cabrera’s RBI single. Eric Campbell, playing first with first baseman Lucas Duda on the disabled list, drove in the fourth run on a sacrifice fly. Earlier in the day, the Mets received the bad news that Duda would be out for at least the next month, likely more, due to a stress fracture in his back.

The Mets (26-18), who lost two out of three against the Nationals (27-18) at Citi Field last week, won their fourth straight to move within a half-game of NL East-leading Washington.

PHOTO: WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 23: Daniel Murphy #20 of the Washington Nationals bobbles the ball after forcing out Asdrubal Cabrera #13 of the New York Mets at second base in the fifth inning at Nationals Park on May 23, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)