The Washington Nationals hammered the New York Mets 12-4 on Monday night. This is Mets’ fourth defeat in a row and the Philadelphia Phillies closed in 2 1/2 games of New York for the NL East division lead after they blew nearly all of an 11-0 lead and beat St. Louis, 13-11.

In their attempt to recover after an unsuccessful weekend against the Phillies in Flushing, the Mets sank even lower on the RFK Stadium and although they build up a 4-0 lead they blew it by giving up all 12 runs to suffer an embarrassing 12-4 loss to the Nationals.

Willie Randolph, Mets' manager tried to keep cool after the embarrassing loss.

''I'm not angry," Randolph said. ''We're trying hard. Maybe too hard. We'll just regroup," he added.

''It needs to turn around quickly or we're going home,'' catcher Paul Lo Duca said.

New York made six errors in the game, reaching a deed even the 1962 Mets didn't.

Brian Lawrence started last night and staked to a 4-0 advantage build up by home runs from Carlos Beltran and Shawn Green, he cruised into the fourth inning, when he struck out D'Angelo Jimenez.

Lawrence, who had allowed just one hit to that point, didn't record another out. Five hits and a walk followed, capped by Brian Schneider's two-run double that tied the score at 4. But reliever Aaron Sele was held responsible for the defeat after he allowed one run on three hits in 1 1/3 innings.

All five of Mets relievers - losing pitcher Aaron Sele (one run), Scott Schoeneweis (two), Sosa (one), Willie Collazo (one) and Joe Smith (two) - allowed runs after Lawrence had wasted the 4-0 lead.

Nook Logan led the Nationals with three hits and three runs while Ryan Church helped with a two-run pinch-hit home run. Wily Mo Pena added two hits and two RBIs and reliever Jonathan Albaladejo got his first major league win, tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings.