Trea Turner hit a grand slam and finished with seven RBIs, and 21-year-old Juan Soto became the youngest National League batting champion as the host Washington Nationals routed the New York Mets 15-5 on Sunday.

The Nationals (26-34) won the final three games of the four-game series to officially move past the Mets (26-34) in the National League East and avoid becoming just the third reigning World Series champion to finish last. Washington finished fourth by virtue of winning the season series 6-4.

The last-place finish is the first since 2003 for the Mets, who entered Saturday with slim wild-card hopes.

Soto, who entered the day with a three-point lead on the Atlanta Braves' Freddie Freeman and an 11-point lead on the Braves' Marcell Ozuna, singled in his lone at-bat before being lifted for a pinch hitter in the third inning. Soto finished with a .351 average as he supplanted Pete Reiser as the youngest batting champ in NL history. Reiser was 22 when he hit .343 for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1941.

Freeman finished the 2020 regular season with a .341 average and Ozuna .338.

Turner, who entered Sunday fourth in the NL in batting average, went 2-for-5 to finish at .335. The seven-RBI game marked the third time he's collected at least six RBIs in a contest.

Andrew Stevenson concluded his torrid September by going 2-for-4 with three RBIs. He hit .417 and had a hit in all 12 games he played after rejoining the Nationals on Sept. 18.

The Mets struck first Sunday, when Pete Alonso hit a two-run homer off Austin Voth (2-5) in the first inning. Yadiel Hernandez lofted a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first, and Guillermo Heredia homered for New York in the second before the Nationals chased Seth Lugo (3-4) during a five-run second. Stevenson (double) and Turner (single) each had two-RBI hits and Yan Gomes delivered a sacrifice fly.

The Nationals turned the game into a rout in the third, when Stevenson drew a bases-loaded walk, Turner hit his grand slam and Gomes homered.

Alonso homered in the seventh, his 16th of the season.

Voth allowed four runs on nine hits and no walks while striking out four over five innings. Lugo surrendered six runs on five hits and two walks while striking out one over 1 1/3 innings.

--Field Level Media