Drury’s Homer, Conforto’s Arm Fuel Mets’ Win Over Atlanta

Thanks to their terrible injury luck, the Mets have needed – and received – contributions from a bevy of unfamiliar faces. Rookie pitcher Tylor Megill and (to a lesser extent) journeyman reserve Brandon Drury have planted themselves firmly on that list.

Megill, who celebrated his 26th birthday Wednesday, was stellar again through 5 1/3 innings, holding the Braves to a lone run in the Mets’ dramatic 2-1 win to even the series through four games at Citi Field this week.

Drury’s pinch-hit, two-out solo homer in the seventh inning proved to be the game-winner as five Met relievers – behind some outstanding defense – combined to shut out a talented Braves lineup that exploded for 12 runs the night before.

Megill had his work cut out for him early on. His first inning was mostly uneventful, save for the token Freddie Freeman base hit. Megill erased that on a strikeout of Austin Riley. After the first two Braves reached in the second, Megill rebounded to retire the next three, including a strikeout of Braves pitcher Max Fried on a high 95 MPH fastball. The K prompted a brief show of emotion from the normally even-keeled Megill. He allowed another baserunner in the third – this one on an Ozzie Albies bloop – but was able to force a Freeman groundout and get Riley to fly out to right to end the frame.

Fried mostly coasted during his first turn through the Met order. The de facto ace made it through the first eight batters unscathed – allowing only a single to Jonathan Villar, who he then picked off. Megill gave Fried his first real trouble with two outs in the third, lacing his second career hit into right field. Brandon Nimmo followed him and activated his patented forcefield, coaxing a walk ahead of Pete Alonso.

The Polar Bear ripped a single to right, not hard enough to score Megill from second, but enough to load the bases for Jeff McNeil. He swung at the first pitch and also ripped a single the other way, bringing in the game’s first run and extending his career-best hitting streak to 15 games. J.D. Davis struck out swinging at a ball in the dirt to leave the bases loaded and end the threat.

Armed with a lead, Megill had his easiest inning of the night in the fourth, retiring the Braves in order – including a strikeout of Dansby Swanson. Fried followed suit, hitting Michael Conforto with a pitch but allowing nothing else. Kevin Pillar’s deep fly ball was tracked down on the center field warning track by Guillermo Heredia to end the inning.

Megill extended his scoreless streak to 17 innings in the fifth, striking out the first two batters he faced before walking Joc Pederson. Megill got an important third out, though, forcing Albies to fly out weakly to left and leave Freeman in the on-deck circle.

Fried stuck out Megill on three pitches to start the bottom of the fifth, and McNeil the same way to end the inning. Alonso worked a walk in the interim, but to no avail.

Megill struck out Freeman on a high fastball, but wasn’t able to get the same pitch quite high enough to Riley, who deposited it a few feet over the outstretched glove of Nimmo and just to the right of the Home Run Apple in dead center to tie the game at one. The bomb was Riley’s fifth in the last six games. That ended Megill’s day on a sour note, but 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball is nothing to sneeze at. Through seven starts in his young career, Megill’s ERA is 2.04, good for third best in franchise history behind Terry Leach and Nolan Ryan.

Seth Lugo took over from there, getting Swanson to ground out on his first pitch and Abraham Almonte to pop out on his third to easily make it through the frame.

Fried kept cruising along in the bottom of the inning, retiring Davis, James McCann and Conforto in order to keep the game tied 2/3 of the way through regulation.

Lugo’s two outs on three pitches wasn’t enough to earn himself a second inning of work, as Luis Rojas opted for Trevor May in the seventh. No matter for May, who disposed of Heredia and Kevan Smith, both flailing at high fastballs, and Fried via groundout in his lone clean inning.

After Fried downed the -illars to start the inning, Drury pinch hit, enjoying a month in which he’s gone 5-for-5. The reserve made it 6-for-6 in a big way, launching a hanging curve over the Great Wall of Flushing to put the Mets up 2-1 after seven. Rojas opted for his best reliever, Aaron Loup, in the eighth against the top of the Braves’ order. Pederson and Albies greeted Loup with line-drive singles to set up Freeman with two on and no one out.

The reigning MVP tapped one back to Loup, who bobbled the ball, but stuck with it enough to get Freeman at first. His night would end there, as Jeurys Familia entered to battle the equally dangerous Riley. Familia unleashed a bevy of devastating sinkers to strike out Riley and got Swansby to ground one deep into the shortstop hole. Villar made a nice play and Alonso made a better pick to escape the jam – prompting primal yells from both Familia and Alonso.

Chris Martin entered for the Braves and erased a McNeil single with a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Davis to keep the Met lead at just one for Edwin Diaz. Almonte gave the Braves an immediate runner in scoring position with his ground-rule double to right field off a hanging slider. Diaz was able to get noted Met-killer Heredia to fly out to shallow right to keep the tying run at second with one out.

Ehire Adrianza pinch hit after his big night on Tuesday and laced one into right field, but Conforto unleashed an absolute pearl of a throw home to nail Almonte trying to tie it up.

It took eight more pitches, but Diaz was finally able to get pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval to line out to left for the final out. Citi Field erupted, trumpets blared, euphoria ensued.

The matinee rubber match of this five-game series is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. on Thursday. Taijuan Walker (7-4, 3.43 ERA) looks to find his first-half form against veteran southpaw Drew Smyly (7-3, 4.30). The action can be caught locally on SNY and WCBS Radio 880, and nationally on the MLB Network.