NEW YORK -- - Jonah Tong threw five encouraging innings and earned the win Thursday afternoon for the New York Mets , who lengthened their lead in the race for the final National League playoff spot with a 6-1 victory over the San Diego Padres .

Pete Alonso homered for the fourth straight game, Brandon Nimmo also went deep and Juan Soto collected his 100th RBI for the Mets, who won a series for the first time since taking two of three from the Detroit Tigers from Sept. 1-3.

The Mets lead the idle Arizona Diamondbacks by two games for the third wild card and moved within four games of the Padres, the second wild card.

Tong (2-2), who allowed six runs while recording only two outs last Friday, gave up an unearned run on four hits Thursday while racking up eight strikeouts.

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