Edwin Diaz gets his first Mets save as bullpen protects lead for Jacob deGrom in opener

WASHINGTON — Edwin Diaz had the baseball still in his glove, the glove sitting in his locker, when a smiling Brodie Van Wagenen showed up after the game.

The two slapped hands, then pulled in close for a tight bro-hug. “Welcome to New York,” the happy general manager said.

Van Wagenen is the reason Diaz was wearing a Mets uniform Thursday — as the other highly coveted piece in the Robinson Cano trade — and on the mound to close out a 2-0 victory over the Nationals with a perfect ninth inning.

The first two outs were well-struck fly balls, but Diaz, pumping 98-mph heaters, ended it by whiffing pinch hitter Matt Adams when he couldn’t check his swing on a high-and-away slider.

“Just nasty stuff,” Mickey Callaway said. “We know it’s nasty. His spring training probably didn’t go the way he wanted it to, but we knew you turn on the lights, once it matters, the stuff is going to be there.”

Diaz tries to keep every baseball from his saves, unless he throws one to the fans, and he’s got the 57 from last season still waiting to be sent from Seattle. The Mets intend to have that collection keep growing, and No. 1 was a big save to get out of the way, especially in enemy territory against an NL East rival of the Nationals’ caliber.

“When they give me the ball, I have to do my job and save the game for Jake,” Diaz said.

The baseball had a few stops in between Jacob deGrom’s scoreless six innings and Diaz’s right hand, not all them uneventful. Callaway had the luxury of deploying his top three relievers to secure deGrom’s win, starting with Seth Lugo, the spin-rate master penciled in as the Mets’ top seventh-inning weapon. Lugo struck out the side in the seventh, the last “K’’ to a looking Max Scherzer.

“I think it’s a good feeling out there,” Lugo said of the renovated bullpen. “There’s a lot of chemistry between us.”

The only somewhat shaky part of Thursday’s bridge belonged to another familiar face, Jeurys Familia, who was brought back on a three-year, $30 million deal after spending 6 1⁄2 years in Flushing, mostly as the closer.

Familia flirted with danger in his debut. He opened the eighth by falling behind 3-and-0 to Victor Robles but fought back to work the count full before getting him on a weak pop-up. He was ahead 1-and-2 on Adam Eaton before drilling him with a fastball to bring up the tying run. But Familia got Trae Turner on a forceout and retired Anthony Rendon on a fly ball to center.

“I think he’s the same guy,” Callaway said.

Those who have seen Familia’s act would agree, but he got the job done.

The bullpen was able to do something that didn’t happen often for deGrom last season. He had 18 starts of allowing one or no runs and seven wins to show for it. Now he’s 1-for-1, thanks to those nine bullpen outs.

“I felt good handing over the ball with a lead,” said deGrom, who was done after 93 pitches. “And I was confident those guys were going to keep that lead.”

Callaway could have said the same thing Thursday. And this time the formula worked as planned.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.