NEW YORK -- Marcus Stroman bent down to tie his shoe, trying to ward off the wooziness that had overcome him Thursday in Game 1 of a doubleheader. For a few moments, Stroman stood with his hands on his knees, until a cadre of Mets officials came out to check on him. One of them, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, jogged back to the dugout to grab a bottle of water, which Stroman promptly chugged.

With New York City temperatures soaring into the mid-90s on Thursday and humidity peaking over 60 percent at Citi Field, stamina was always going to be an issue. But outside of that brief delay in the fourth inning, Stroman managed to gut through the heat in a 4-1 win over the Nationals.

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“It was definitely hot out there for sure,” Stroman said. “I’m not someone who hydrates very well. It’s something I’m trying to learn to do better on game day. I’m great as far as on my five-day [schedule]. So it’s always a battle. But yeah, it was definitely a good win for the team.”

Even as his production has flagged a bit in the second half, Stroman has remained consistent from start to start, giving the Mets 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball on this occasion. He’s pitched between five and six innings in seven of his last eight starts, allowing more than three earned runs in those outings just once. Overall, the right-hander is 8-11 with a 2.79 ERA in 24 outings.

“That’s what we need from Stroman,” manager Luis Rojas said. “We’ve got to keep backing him up with the offense. Just to keep looking at the board and seeing that he’s now 8-11 with the ERA that he has, we’ve got to keep backing him up with the offense.”

Sharp from the start on Thursday, Stroman took advantage of home-plate umpire Sean Barber’s strike zone to catch consecutive batters looking en route to striking out seven of the first 17 men he faced. Stroman finally ran into trouble in the sixth inning, after allowing the first three batters to reach base. But shortly after Victor Robles hit an RBI double off Stroman, reliever Aaron Loup entered to induce an inning-ending double play.

“He gets it done,” Rojas said of Loup, who is unscored upon in his last 16 appearances. “Just an outstanding performance to give us a chance to win the game.”

The Mets had entered that inning with a comfortable lead thanks to Brandon Nimmo, who launched a three-run homer in the second inning and singled home another run in the fourth. Nimmo’s four RBIs matched his career high -- in part because of Stroman, who had laid down a bunt single to set up his teammate’s homer.

“I’m not a great hitter, so anytime I see an opportunity to kind of lay one down and get it to the next guy … I’m just trying to do my part,” Stroman said.