Anthony Rendon Sets Nationals' Single-Game RBI Record

Washington Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon entered Sunday's game against the New York Mets in an April slump.

Prior to the game, Rendon had collected just five RBI and posted a .226 batting average with no home runs over 84 at-bats. That changed in a huge way, as Rendon stepped to the plate in the eighth inning of the contest having already tallied nine RBI and two home runs—a franchise record—per ESPN Stats & Info.

He proceeded to belt his third of the day in the at-bat, sending one over the center field fence off of Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki, who took the mound so the team could avoid using additional relief pitchers.

Rendon tripled his season RBI total in the contest, now owning a respectable 15 to his name. The 6-for-6 day at the plate also boosted his batting average by over 50 points to .278 following the tilt.

The 26-year-old got off to a slow start last season as well, finishing April with no home runs and just one RBI. That didn't stop him from finishing the season with 20 dingers in addition to 85 RBI thanks to a second half in which he batted .291 with 52 RBI and 11 homers over 68 games. He opted to start things a little earlier this season, waiting until just the last day of April to explode in the box score.

While Rendon provided a lot of offensive support himself, he had a hand in just over half the team's runs. Washington pegged starter Noah Syndergaard—who exited Sunday's game with an injury—and New York's bullpen for a total of 23 runs on the day. Rendon either drove in or scored (or both) 12 of those.

The Nationals ended the month on a hot streak offensively as a whole. They collected double-digit runs in each of the last three games in their series at Coors Field before returning home to score another 31 in the three-game series against the Mets to close out April.

As the calendar turns to May, the club sports a 17-8 record and sits 4.5 games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies for the lead in the NL East. Despite losing star center fielder Adam Eaton to an ACL tear Saturday, the club has plenty of pieces and a pitching staff that could make them postseason contenders in 2017.