Four Run Seventh Propels Mets to 4-3 Win Over Braves

For the second consecutive day, a team made sure to set up their rotation so they had a pitcher with a good curveball face the Mets.

And for a while, it worked.

Like last week, Charlie Morton was virtually untouchable for two-thirds of Tuesday’s game, but his one bad curve hung a little too much and James McCann sent it into the seats, leading to a 4-3 comeback win for the Mets in Atlanta.

Tylor Megill acquitted himself well in his second career start, but a two-out, three-run homer to Ozzie Albies in the fifth inning put a damper on his night. Coupled with the Nationals win over the Rays, the Mets lead in the division stayed at three games.

Jeff McNeil led off the game by taking a Morton curveball off the foot. Francisco Lindor sacrifice bunted him over to second and Michael Conforto’s groundout moved him up to third, but Pete Alonso’s liner found Freddie Freeman’s glove to end the top of the first.

It was quite the first inning for Tylor Megill, who struck out Ronald Acuna Jr. – who didn’t play in Megill’s first appearance last week – to begin his second career big league start. He followed that up with a three-pitch strikeout of Freeman before narrowly missing an immaculate inning. Ozzie Albies was just able to hold his swing down 0-2, but ended up striking out two pitches later anyway.

Morton didn’t even break a sweat in the second, needing just six pitches to get Dom Smith to ground out weakly into the shift, Kevin Pillar to ground out weakly to first and James McCann to fly out weakly to center.

Austin Riley jumped on Megill’s first pitch of the second, lining a single to right center. Megill rebounded to strike out Dansby Swanson, but walked Guillermo Heredia on a pitch that was very much not a ball.

Home plate ump Adam Beck continued to choke the strike zone like it owed him money, but Megill bounced back from a 3-0 count to get Abraham Almonte to line out hard to center. Dom Smith’s diving grab on a William Contreras liner towards the gap ended the frame nicely for Megill and the Mets.

Morton continued to force soft or no contact, forcing Guillorme into a 10-foot groundout to the pitcher, Megill into a groundout to second and McNeil into a strikeout on a curveball in the dirt. That made it nine-straight retired for the veteran righty.

Megill got Morton to groundout to short to start the bottom of the third, but walked Acuna on another absolutely brutal sequence from Beck behind the plate. Megill fooled Freeman with a changeup for his fifth strikeout, eclipsing his mark from his first start. An Albies pop out ended the third in a scoreless tie.

Lindor watched four pitches to start the fourth – two of which were over the plate – and eventually struck out on a (stop me if you’ve heard this before) curveball in the dirt. Conforto followed by jumping on a first pitch fastball to single up the middle, but Alonso’s deep fly ball was caught on the track in right by Acuna. Smith struck out looking to end the top of the frame thanks to Beck’s suddenly liberal strike zone.

Megill ran a nasty slider off the outside corner to get Riley swinging to start the bottom of the fourth, then Dansby with a high fastball for his seventh strikeout of the night. Heredia continued his revenge tour against the Mets, singling through the shift with two outs, but Almonte hit a one-hopper to Alonso on the bag, retiring the side.

Kevin Pillar started the fifth by very much unsurprisingly swinging at a curveball a foot outside for strike three. Not to be outdone, James McCann swung at a ball that landed two feet in front of the plate and one foot outside of it for Morton’s fifth strikeout of the evening.

Luis Guillorme opted not to swing until he got a pitch in the same general vicinity of the strike zone, eventually ripping a 3-2 fastball to right for the Mets second hit of the night. He wouldn’t make it past first though, as Megill grounded out to short for out No. 3.

After two quick outs, Acuna lofted a single into right and Freeman followed with a groundball single through the shift to give the Braves runners on the corners with two outs. Albies made it hurt, crushing a first-pitch changeup into the Braves bullpen to give Atlanta an instant 3-0 lead at the end of five.

McNeil led off the top of the sixth with a single the other way, but Lindor struck out on another curveball in the dirt after watching two strikes to start the at bat. Conforto kept with the theme, whiffing on a curveball at his back foot for the second out. Alonso switched things up and made contact, but popped out to second for the third out.

Drew Smith spelled Megill in the sixth. Megill went five innings, allowed five hits, three runs and struck out eight. Like his first start, it was the fifth inning that did Megill in after four strong.

Smith started his night with a four-pitch walk of Swanson. After a fly out, fielder’s choice and intentional walk, Morton came to the plate with two on and two out and almost snuck a grounder up the middle, but Lindor was able to range over and throw out Morton to get Smith through the sixth unscathed.

In the first six innings over the last six games, the Mets scored a total of one run. With six in the books Tuesday, the Mets started the seventh with their biggest threat of the night.

Smith singled to start the inning, and Pillar reached on a walk – thanks to another miss from Beck behind the plate on a pitch that he also coincidentally swung at, which was missed by first base ump Alan Porter. It was another good night for robot ump supporters.

With two on and no one out, McCann swung at two straight pitches that missed the strike zone by a combined four feet, took a pitch outside and then mashed a hanging curve 417 to left center to tie the game.

Like Megill, Morton made one bad pitch and it ruined his night. He exited after McCann’s homer with a line of six-plus innings pitched, five hits, three runs and seven strikeouts. He had thrown 20.2 consecutive scoreless innings before the long ball.

A.J. Minter entered in relief for the Braves and promptly struck out Guillorme on four pitches. Jose Peraza pinch hit for Drew Smith and lined a ground-rule double to left on an 0-2 pitch to put the lead run in scoring position with one out and McNeil up.

He struck out on three pitches, leaving things up to Lindor, who smoked a single into left center to bring home Peraza and give the Mets a 4-3 lead. Conforto looked like he may have extended the lead even more, but his deep fly ball died on the warning track in right.

Armed with a one-run lead, Trevor May entered for the Mets and struck out Acuna with a perfectly-placed 3-2 fastball. Freeman flew out to left and Albies popped out to get May through a seamless seventh.

Shane Greene worked a perfect eighth without much resistance from Alonso, Smith or Pillar and Seth Lugo jogged in to take his turn on the mound for the bottom of the frame.

The Spin Rate King retired Riley on a groundout to first to start the frame before Swanson put a scare in Mets faithful with a deep fly ball to center – but Pillar was able to run it down on the track for the second out. Heredia’s bloop landed in front of Pillar, but Lugo was able to escape when Almonte’s hard-hit liner went directly to a waiting Conforto.

Southpaw Tyler Matzek walked McCann to lead off the top of the ninth and Guillorme bunted him over. Peraza followed with a four-pitch walk, bringing up pinch-hitter Albert Almora Jr. The struggling outfielder grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to kill the rally and leave Edwin Diaz with just a lonesome one-run lead to protect.

Pinch hitter Ehire Adrianza missed a game-tying homer by the slimmest of margins to the right of the right field foul pole. He eventually flew out to left for the first out. Pablo Sandoval left his panda hat in the dugout to take his turn as a pinch hitter and smoked a liner to right, but directly at Conforto for the second out.

Acuna’s first pitch pop up to shallow right put a bow on things for the Diaz and the Mets.

Game 2 of the series is set for Wednesday at 7:20 p.m. on SNY and the MLB Network. The contest is scheduled as a battle of lefties, with the Mets sending out the streaking David Peterson (2-5, 4.95 ERA) against Max Fried (4-4, 4.21), who’s making his first start since landing on the IL with a blister last week.