NEW YORK – Carlos Delgado hit two impressive homers for the second straight game, Carlos Beltran had a go-ahead shot to reach 100 RBIs and the New York Mets increased their NL East lead by beating the scrappy Washington Nationals 10-8 Tuesday night.

Ryan Church also homered, Jose Reyes snapped an 0-for-15 slide with two hits and the Mets started a stretch of 12 games against the bottom two teams in the division with an offensive display that offset Oliver Perez’s rough outing.

New York moved 21/2 games ahead of second-place Philadelphia, which lost 10-8 to Florida.