Mets race into playoff position with sweep of Nationals to erase early-season hole

The ditch the Mets spent so much of April and May digging is gone.

The same club that was 11 games under .500 as recently as June 2 became a would-be playoff team on July 11.

With a 7-0 win over the Nationals to complete a sweep Thursday in front of 25,710 at Citi Field, Carlos Mendoza’s group moved percentage points above the Padres for the third NL wild-card spot, a charge to the postseason picture impressive not just because of the depths they had fallen to but because of the speed by which those depths were erased.

The Mets (47-45) would be part of the postseason if the season ended today — which means little of course, particularly because the outside-looking-in Padres (49-47) are percentage points behind through a games-played discrepancy.

But the Mets trading their shovels for bats and hitting their way back into contention sure helps their confidence and certainly delivers a message to a front office that is under three weeks away from a trade-deadline decision.

“We believe we’re a really good team. We want to be buyers at the end of this month,” said Brandon Nimmo, whose bases-clearing double in the fifth broke open a scoreless game. “And we believe we’re not that far off from being serious contenders. We’ve been playing really good baseball. We want to continue to do that.”

They have won five of six.

Since rock bottom on May 29, when they were blown away by the Dodgers, Jorge Lopez tossed his glove into the stands and Francisco Lindor called a players-only meeting, they are 25-12.

In that span, they have averaged a majors-best 5.9 runs per game.

In the Mets’ first 55 contests, they averaged 4.1 runs per game.

On June 2, just 5 ¹/₂ weeks ago, the Mets were the third-worst team in the National League.

They have climbed to two games over .500 for the first time since they were 13-11 on April 24.

“What we went through in the month of May and how far back we got,” Mendoza said after his club’s first shutout of the season, “to be able to get to this position is a good feeling, but also understanding that we still got a long ways to go.”

Again on Thursday, they looked like a club that deserves to pivot into buyers.

David Peterson delivered six strong, scoreless innings, becoming the third starter to tally a quality start in the series.

Peterson, Jose Quintana and Luis Severino combined for 20 ¹/₃ innings in which they allowed two total runs (both by Severino) against Washington.

Peterson’s trouble arrived in the second inning, when the Nationals put runners on the corners without an out.

He responded by striking out Trey Lipscomb, Jacob Young and CJ Abrams in succession.

The lefty missed the first two months of the season following offseason hip surgery, but he wants his year to extend into October.

“We want to be in the postseason,” said Peterson, who has allowed two or fewer earned runs in seven of his first eight starts. “We want all of that stuff.”

Peterson’s excellence allowed his offense time to crack through, which it eventually did against lefty MacKenzie Gore.

The first hit — a J.D. Martinez double — came in the fourth.

The breakthrough came in the fifth.

The Mets mounted a two-out rally after Luis Torrens led off the frame with a double.

Jeff McNeil and Lindor worked walks to load the bases for the exact batter the Mets wanted at the plate.

Since notably not being voted into the All-Star Game on Sunday, Nimmo might have morphed into MLB’s best hitter.

Nimmo got a middle-of-the-plate fastball and didn’t miss, shooting a double into left-center that drove in three.

In four games since the snub, Nimmo has gone 5-for-17 with three home runs, a double and nine RBIs.

The Mets poured it on from there, Martinez and Pete Alonso coming through with RBI hits before they scored two more in the eighth, when Mark Vientos and Harrison Bader added RBI singles.

Phil Maton struck out two in a perfect frame in his club debut and combined with Danny Young, Dedniel Nunez and Adam Ottavino, who navigated into and out of trouble, to throw three scoreless innings.

The bullpen appears to have settled down and could use another addition or two for a team that is firmly in the playoff chase.

“The work is not done,” Nimmo said. “We’ve put in a lot of work to get back to this point because we dug ourselves a bit of a hole.

“But … we don’t believe this is just a fluke.”