R.A. Dickey has settled into a remarkable grove with his knuckleball.

He tossed another 7 1/3 innings of shut out ball against the Nationals on Wednesday afternoon, and Lucas Duda added a two-run blast to help the Mets to a 3-1 win as New York salvaged the finale of the three game series.

Dickey picked up his seventh straight win to improve to 9-1, the most wins in the majors, while extending his scoreless innings streak to 23 2/3. Over his last four games (30.2 innings), Dickey has 38 strikeouts and just one earned run.

For Duda, the round-tripper was his tenth, and RBIs 34 and 35, which leads the Mets in both categories.

David Wright and Daniel Murphy each had a pair of hits, and Murphy added an RBI.

Frank Francisco gave up a lead off homer to Ryan Zimmerman in the ninth but retired the Nationals in order after that for his 15th save.

The Mets (32-26) moved to within 1 1/2 games of Washington in the N.L. East heading into a weekend Subway Series in the Bronx.

 

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