Braves are in first place after crushing the Mets

NEW YORK — Sean Newcomb pitched seven innings of two-hit ball in the best performance of his young career, and the Braves’ league-leading offense kept rolling Wednesday night in a 7-0 rout against the Mets to clinch another series win at Citi Field.

Ender Inciarte, Johan Camargo and Ryan Flaherty all homered and Nick Markakis and Freddie Freeman had three hits apiece for the Braves, who’ve won four in a row and moved into first place in the National League East, a half-game ahead of the Mets.

In the best of Newcomb’s 25 starts over two seasons, the big left-hander allowed just two hits and one walk with eight strikeouts in a career-high seven innings. He’s 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA in his past five starts and has 36 strikeouts with 11 walks in 30 1/3 innings in that span.

The Braves (18-11) have won six of seven games and clinched their seventh series win, something they didn’t do last season until the first week of June. Mets starter Jacob DeGrom was dominant for four scoreless innings before leaving the game with a hyperextension of his pitching elbow.

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Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson left the game for precautionary reasons with a sore left wrist before the bottom of the sixth inning, and his replacement Camargo homered in a four-run eighth inning when the Braves blew the game wide open.

Camargo and Flaherty hit consecutive two-out homers off reliever Robert Gsellman, the second time this season the Braves have hit back-to-back jacks. Markakis and Swanson did it April 8 at Colorado.

Inciarte hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning after Newcomb’s two-out double off the left-field wall.

Newcomb (2-1) retired the last 13 batters he faced in the third scoreless game of his career. The others were six-inning outings against the Padres in his fourth career start and April 8 against the Rockies at Coors Field, where he allowed five hits and no walks with nine strikeouts to start his impressive current five-start stretch.

He also allowed no earned runs (one unearned) in 6 1/3 innings against the Mets in his major league debut June 10, 2017, his longest previous outing before Wednesday.

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