NEW YORK (AP) — 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. Beginning with

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