If you heard an explosion in Flushing on Wednesday, don’t worry, it was just the Mets‘ bats. Questions about how the Mets would produce offense without Francisco Lindor have quieted for another night after they used a nine-run fourth inning to finish a sweep of the Washington Nationals. The Mets smacked the Nats, 10-0, at Citi Field with Brandon Nimmo and Luisangel Acuña both homering and every member of the starting lineup reaching base. Jose Quintana continued his shutout streak by blanking Washington over seven innings for his third-straight scoreless outing. After mustering only seven runs in three games against the Philadelphia Phillies and Nats (Sept.14-16), the Mets have now scored 20 over their last two against Washington (68-84). They’ll need every bit of that lineup length this week when Philadelphia comes to town for the final four home games of the season, but so far, the Mets have risen to the occasion without their best player. “To see guys step up, it’s been really, really cool,” Nimmo said. “One of the things that we’ve been trying to say is just be yourself, right? You don’t have to be anything more than yourself. You cannot replace Francisco Lindor, but we are good enough that if we are just all our best versions of ourselves, then we can still win games and still be a very, very good team.” The Atlanta Braves defeated the Cincinnati Reds to stay within striking distance of the Mets, who are now tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the second NL Wild Card spot with an 84-68 record. The Amazins’ are only 2.5 games from catching the San Diego Padres (87-66) at the top of the Wild Card standings. “This is kind of what you play for,” Nimmo said. “The regular season is a grind; you get through it, and you do what you have to do each and every day. But around this time of year when the energy is high, the weather is starting to cool off a little bit, it just has that feeling about it where things mean more, each pitch means more. So it’s a lot of fun.” Rookie left-hander DJ Herz cruised through the first three innings before imploding for seven earned runs in the fourth. He struck out the side in the third, battling the Mets’ Nos. 9, 1 and 2 hitters. They made him throw 15 pitches, and had seen them all by the time he got to the bottom of the fourth. He put the first four batters on and gave up three runs before getting the first out, striking out Francisco Alvarez for his fourth and final out. Herz (4-8) walked Nimmo to lead off the inning and Pete Alonso singled to left. Tyrone Taylor then drove a double to the right-center gap to score Nimmo, and Mark Vientos cleared the bases with a two-run single to put the Mets ahead, 3-0. “The fastball was playing up, and then the changeup was good. That combination was tough the first time through the lineup, but then felt like we made some good adjustments,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “Staying on the fastball was sneaky, but then he hung a couple of changeups that we were able to stay on and beat.” With one out, Herz walked Harrison Bader to put runners on first and second. Acuña sent another hitter home and Jose Iglesias loaded the bases with a single. The Nats went to the bullpen for right-hander Jacob Barnes, who was of little use. Starling Marte hit a two-run single and Nimmo then crushed a three-run homer that nearly hit the Shea Bridge to cap off the rally. “I think it points to how deep our lineup is,” Nimmo said.  “We were able to do damage from 1-9 and have really good at-bats from 1-9. We kept putting that pressure on them and had the dam finally break.” Quintana (10-9) limited Washington to only two hits and two walks while striking out four. The veteran lefty hasn’t allowed a run to the Nats all season and hasn’t allowed one over his last 23 1/3 innings, the longest stretch of his career. Over his last five starts, he’s only given up one earned run and one unearned (32 innings). Quintana attacked hitters and was able to do so because of the defense behind him. Acuña made a few plays that displayed his range at shortstop, Iglesias was solid as always and Taylor had a fantastic leaping catch at the wall to rob Andres Chaparro of extra bases in the seventh. “A baseball player,” Mendoza said. “This guy is always ready. Doesn’t matter the situation, whether he’s in the starting lineup coming in the middle of the game. Huge play there.” Right-handers Phil Maton and Huascar Brazobán finished the job by holding Washington scoreless in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively. Acuña’s second career home run came in the bottom of the eighth. Right-hander Zach Brzykcy couldn’t finish him off on 1-2, throwing the rookie infielder a changeup he took over the left field fence. It was the second home run in as many nights for the younger brother of reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. “We’re close to finishing the season, and we’re in good position,” Quintana said. “We feel really strong.”