NEW YORK (Interstat) – Jacob Young made a pair of sensational catches in center field Sunday afternoon, including a circus grab in the fifth inning, as the Washington Nationals held on to hand the New York Mets a costly 3-2 defeat at Citi Field.

The loss dropped the Mets, who have lost 11 of their last 15 games and are 35-52 since mid-June, into a tie with the streaking Cincinnati Reds for the final National League wild card. The Reds, who beat the Chicago Cubs 1-0, hold the tiebreaker over New York. A crowd of 42,960 watched the Nationals improve to 64-92 while the Mets fell to 80-76.

Washington’s offense came to life in the second inning against Mets starter Sean Manaea, who took the loss to fall to 2-4. Daylen Lile started the rally with a single, and after a flyout, Jorge Alfaro doubled him home. A throwing error by Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor allowed Lile to score. Two batters later, with two outs, Nasim Nuñez provided the decisive blow, launching a two-run home run to left-center field for a 3-0 lead.

That was all the support Nationals starter Jake Irvin would need. Irvin, who earned the win to improve to 9-13, navigated 5 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on six hits while striking out five. The Mets got to him for a run in the third inning on an RBI single by Cedric Mullins that scored Luis Torrens, who had doubled.

The game’s defining moment came in the bottom of the fifth with the Mets trailing 3-1. Brett Baty led off by driving a long fly ball to deep center field. Young initially made a twisting, leaping catch at the wall but lost control of the ball upon impact. As the ball fell toward the ground, a stumbling Young instinctively kicked it back into the air hacky-sack style and secured it with his glove a second time for an unbelievable out.

New York cut the deficit to one run in the sixth when Lindor led off with a solo home run, his 28th of the season, chasing Irvin from the game. The Mets threatened for more, putting two runners on with one out, but reliever Mitchell Parker entered and induced an infield fly popout from Jeff McNeil before striking out Mark Vientos to escape the jam.

Parker was dominant in relief, working the final 3 2/3 innings and allowing just two hits with two strikeouts to record his first save of the season. He retired the side in order in the ninth, sealing the victory in a game that took 2 hours and 43 minutes.

The Mets’ bullpen was equally effective after Manaea’s early exit, with Clay Holmes delivering a key performance by tossing 3 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and striking out three. Gregory Soto, Brooks Raley and Edwin Díaz combined for 2 1/3 perfect innings of relief, striking out six batters.

The result was an upset, as the Nationals entered as significant underdogs. Interstat’s game simulator had projected a 5-2 Mets victory, and its ELO system gave New York a 65.8 percent probability to win. The Mets had also been installed as a -1.5 run favorite, and the combined five runs fell well under the pregame over/under line of 8.5.

The Nationals will travel to Atlanta to begin a three-game series against the Braves on Monday. The Mets, facing a critical final week, have an off-day before opening a three-game set against the Cubs in Chicago on Tuesday.