Chris Bassitt pitches goose eggs, Pete Alonso hits slam in Mets' win over Nationals

WASHINGTON — In this flashy Mets rotation, don’t forget about Chris Bassitt.

He gets third billing after the co-aces, Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, but during his team debut Saturday night in a 5-0 win over the Nationals, he showed why he may well end up the Mets’ most valuable pitcher this season, particularly in the context of the injuries and ages of the two big guys.

Bassitt dazzled for six innings, allowing three hits — one of which left the infield — walking one and striking out eight. The only run support he received or needed came on one swing, when Pete Alonso hit his first home run of the season and the first grand slam of his career.

Pretty good for a theoretical No. 3 starter, who set the tone in the first inning when he fell behind Juan Soto 3-and-0 but came back to strike him out swinging on a fastball over the heart of the plate.

“I don’t care who you are. I’m coming after you,” Bassitt said. “I know he’s probably the best hitter in the world, but I don’t care.”

The Mets have won three consecutive games to begin the year for the first time in a decade; the 2012 club took four straight.

Acquired from the Athletics at the start of spring training for a pair of pitching prospects, Bassitt, 33, completed and deepened a starting five that has plenty of uncertainty. He is the only member without injury and/or performance questions from last season or camp. So the show he put on against the Nationals — including balancing a low-to-mid-90s fastball with five other types of pitches — should be reassuring that the Mets have yet another front-line starter.

The Nationals managed little against the righthander. They didn’t hit a ball to the outfield until the fourth inning, when Maikel Franco’s lazy fly to left stranded two runners. They didn’t have a hit to the outfield until the sixth inning, when Soto sent a line drive to center. They never had a runner reach third base.

“I’m pretty damn good at reading someone’s swing and just trying to toy with that,” Bassitt said. “I know I’m not the most powerful pitcher, so I just try to keep everyone off balance.”

Manager Buck Showalter said: “He’s got a great feel for pitching. He has an imagination when pitching .  .  . He’s got a lot of different looks he can throw at you, and he used them tonight.”

The only other Mets debut of at least six scoreless innings and eight strikeouts was Collin McHugh’s major-league debut in 2012.

Bassitt was locked in a scoreless duel with Washington rookie righthander Joan Adon until the fifth inning, when the Mets broke through. Francisco Lindor worked a nine-pitch walk to load the bases and bring up Alonso, the designated hitter for the day as Dominic Smith played first base.

Adon left a 91-mph fastball over the middle of the plate, and Alonso turned it into a skyscraping home run into the second row of seats in leftfield. He punctuated the blast with a bat flip, a supportive gesture toward the Mets fans sitting down the third-base line and a shushing motion he said was aimed at “the Nats fans and the opposing team.”

“It was one of those where everybody hops out of the dugout to watch it,” Showalter said of the homer.

Alonso added: “It feels nice. Grannies are sick, so it felt really good, especially in a big spot to help the team win.”

A relative unknown to the Mets as someone with just 23 1⁄3 innings above Single-A ball entering the night, Adon, 23, lasted 4 1⁄3 innings. He walked four and struck out three.

Through three games, Nationals starting pitchers have gotten one out in the fifth inning.

“We’re just going to grind you,” Bassitt said, “until you break.”

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.