The Mets believed they had tacked on another two-out run in the third inning when a Patrick Corbin sinker bore in on Luis Guillorme, appearing to strike his hand with the bases loaded. But upon the Nationals’ challenge, the call was overturned: The ball had drilled the handle of the bat.

And so on the next pitch, Guillorme calmly slapped a two-run single through the left side.

In a season in which the Mets have lost Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer for a significant chunk of time only for other pitchers to step up in their absences, even things that go wrong have ended up going right.

Behind yet another offensive explosion filled with timely hits and yet another step-up from an unexpected pitching source, the Mets continued to play the hammer to the nails in their division with a 10-0 destruction of the Nationals at Citi Field in front of 25,263 on Tuesday night for their season-high fifth straight victory.

The Mets (34-17) are a season-best 17 games over .500 and 18-7 against the NL East. The Mets now head west as their competition level gets cranked up against the Dodgers, Padres and Angels.

The New York Rangers entered Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals with their adrenaline still pumping from Monday’s Game 7 win at the Carolina Hurricanes. The Tampa Bay Lightning, in contrast, hit the ice for the first time since completing a sweep of the Florida Panthers way back on May 23.

Their respective layoffs showed in the Rangers’ 6-2 romp over the Lightning on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden to take a 1-0 series lead.

“There was a lot of sharpness for us. Like we talked about, our team just kept going. We got a day off, we played a game, and it really looked good for us tonight,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “Obviously, they were a little bit rusty tonight. They weren’t the same, being nine days off. It makes a difference.”

New York was on the Lightning from the first moments of the game, as Chris Kreider scored on a Tampa Bay turnover just 1:11 into regulation for his ninth of the season.

The Boston Celtics are headed to the 2022 NBA Finals — their first trip to the championship round since 2010 — and they will meet an experienced Golden State Warriors team that knows how to win on this stage.

The Warriors are back in the Finals after beating the Dallas Mavericks in five games during the Western Conference Finals. It’s the Warriors’ sixth NBA Finals appearance in the last eight years. They won three of the previous five, including back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018.

Oddsmakers have made the Warriors slight favorites for the series.

The Warriors are loaded with championship experience and plenty of talent, but the Celtics present a tough matchup for Golden State with their scoring depth, versatility and No. 1 ranked defense.