Mets fend off Padres, move into first in East

SAN DIEGO — Powered by Yoenis Cespedes’ third homer in four games, Matt Harvey’s first double-digit strikeout effort of the season and a magic act from reliever Antonio Bastardo, the Mets moved into sole possession of first place Sunday with a 4-3 win over the Padres.

Harvey gave the Mets six innings of two-run ball, also doubling high off Petco Park’s center-field fence to spark a run-scoring rally in the sixth. The only Met to homer was Cespedes, whose third in four games gave him the National League lead with 30 RBIs.

Though the Padres scrapped and clawed on Christian Bethancourt’s two-run homer in the fifth and a run-scoring balk in the seventh, they could not complete their comeback despite loading the bases with no outs in the eighth. Entering at that point, Bastardo struck out Derek Norris, popped up Melvin Upton Jr. and fanned Alexei Ramirez to maintain the lead.

Combined with the Cubs’ four-game sweep of the Nationals, the Mets’ win moved them for the first time this season into a familiar perch: first place in the NL East, where they sat for almost all of last August and September.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDBastardo’s Houdini act: The Padres seemed primed at least to tie the game, and perhaps to do much more when they loaded the bases with three consecutive singles off Mets relievers Jerry Blevins and Addison Reed in the eighth. But Bastardo retired the next three, eliciting a huge fist pump from catcher Kevin Plawecki as Ramirez fanned to end the …

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