Brandon Knight, a member of the bronze-medal winning United States Olympic baseball team this summer, recorded his first major league victory at the age of 32. The Mets broke a three-game losing streak that cost them first place in their division.

New York remained a half game behind Philadelphia for the lead in the National League East and also stayed a half game in front of Milwaukee in the wild card chase.

Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado put the Mets in front for good with first-inning, solo homers. Beltran climaxed a four-run third with a two-run blast and he added a solo shot in the eighth that gave New York a 9-5 advantage.

Washington outhit the Mets 14-10. Elijah Dukes contributed a two-run homer in the seventh and Wil Nieves drove in two runs with a single in the ninth. That brought the tying run to the plate in the person of pinch-hitter Roger Bernadina, but Luis Ayala came out of the bull pen to record a strikeout and pick up his eighth save.

Knight (1-0) lasted five innings as the starter, giving up two runs on six hits with five strikeouts. The loss went to rookie Shairon Martis (0-3), who worked just three innings.