Zack Wheeler pitched seven gritty innings for his career-high seventh straight win and Amed Rosario homered in the sixth inning as the New York Mets defeated the Washington Nationals 3-0 Saturday at Citi Field.

Wheeler (9-6) allowed six hits and frequently used his defense to work out of jams. He is 7-0 with a 1.68 ERA in his last eight starts and picked up his latest win despite putting runners on in five of seven innings.

Wheeler struck out four, walked three and threw 109 pitches. He won despite throwing first-pitch strikes to 12 of 29 batters.

Rosario gave the Mets the lead when he hammered an 0-2 fastball from Tanner Roark (8-13) into the left-center field seats. It was Rosario's seventh homer this year, and it helped the Mets win for the sixth time in eight games.

Rosario helped Wheeler out defensively in the third, fifth and sixth at shortstop.

With the bases loaded, he snagged a liner by Anthony Rendon for the second out of the third. In the fifth, he was shifted toward second base and started a double play on Bryce Harper.

In the sixth, Juan Soto reached on an infield hit when Rosario could not make a strong throw. Soto was thrown out stealing when Rosario applied the tag.

Todd Frazier homered in the seventh off Wander Suero and Michael Conforto chipped in an RBI single in the eighth off Matt Grace as the Mets recorded consecutive shutouts for the first time since Aug. 11-12, 2015, vs. Colorado.

Adam Eaton reached four times for the Nationals. He opened the game with a bunt single, walked, singled and was hit in the thigh to put runners at first and second with two outs in the seventh.

The Nationals were shut out in three consecutive games for the first time since moving to Washington in 2005. The franchise last was shut out in three straight games April 13-15, 2004, when the Montreal Expos were blanked against the Marlins.

Washington also was shut out for the 14th time, the third most in baseball. The Nationals enter Sunday scoreless in their last 27 innings since Ryan Zimmerman's game-winning homer against Philadelphia on Wednesday.

Daniel Zamora won a nine-pitch battle with Harper by getting a flyout for the first out of the eighth. Drew Smith recorded the final two outs and also got help from Rosario, who tagged out Soto trying to stretch a single.

Smith recorded the first out of the ninth, and Jerry Blevins finished.

Roark allowed one run on four hits in six innings.

--Field Level Media