Andrés Chaparro’s 2-homer game lifts Nationals over Mets 6-4 in season finale

WASHINGTON (AP) — Andrés Chaparro homered twice and the Washington Nationals defeated the New York Mets 6-4 on Sunday in the season finale for both teams.

Francisco Lindor hit his 300th career home run, Ronny Mauricio went deep for the third time in two days and rookie Carson Benge had three hits for his 45th multihit game and 14th with three or more for New York.

The Mets, who opened the season with a major league-record $358.4 million payroll, slid nine games from last year to 74-88 — their worst mark since going 70-92 in 2017. They finished last in the NL East for the first time since 2003.

New York was 34-47 under manager Carlos Mendoza, who was fired June 26, and 40-41 under Andy Green. The Mets lifted Green’s interim tag Tuesday and gave him a three-year contract through 2029.

The Nationals improved 11 games to 77-85 in manager Blake Butera’s first season. They finished fourth in the NL East while recording their seventh consecutive losing season since winning the 2019 World Series.

Chaparro led off the third and fifth innings with home runs against Mets starter Sean Manaea (6-8). It was Chaparro’s second career multihomer game and first since July 17.

After waiting out an hour-long rain delay at the start, New York built a 4-1 lead with the help of Mauricio and Lindor’s back-to-back home runs in the second. Lindor had not homered since Sept. 12.

Washington tied it with one run in the second and two in the third.

Will Dion (3-2) pitched two scoreless innings and Erik Tolman got four outs for his fifth save.

Manaea allowed five runs in six innings and struck out three.

Mets left fielder Juan Soto was 0 for 5 a day after exiting in the ninth inning when he got hit on his right hand by a pitch. Soto batted .275 with 27 homers and 68 RBIs in the second season of a $765 million, 15-year deal, and his .908 OPS was the second-lowest of his career.

Washington’s season attendance fell from 1,916,768 in 2025 to 1,839,116, a decline of less than 1%.

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