The New York Mets (27-26) defeated the Atlanta Braves (32-23) by a score of 4-1 at SunTrust Park to split the four-game series with their division rivals.

Pitching

Jason Vargas started for the Mets and delivered his best start of the season. The left-hander ran into trouble in the second inning by allowing a double to Charlie Culberson and then intentionally walking Dansby Swanson, but outside of that, he cruised for most of his outing.

However, Mickey Callaway decided to pull him after the fifth inning, despite only having thrown 65 pitches to that point. Vargas finished with a line in which he allowed zero runs, two hits, one walk, and struck out two. He also received the win.

In the sixth inning, Callaway turned to the 27-year old right-hander, Tim Peterson, for his MLB debut and he got through his first inning of work with ease.

In the seventh, though, he allowed a home run to Johan Camargo to cut the lead to 2-1. He did manage to finish the inning and bridged the gap, interestingly enough, to Jeurys Familia.

Familia came on for the eighth and ran into trouble after recording the first out as Ozzie Albies singled and Freddie Freeman followed it up with a double that put runners at the corners. Nick Markakis then hit a line drive groundball up the middle that Amed Rosario made a fantastic diving stop for, flipped to second, and Asdrubal Cabrera threw to first for the 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

Robert Gsellman ended up coming in to close the game and retired the Braves one-two-three to earn the second save of his career and secure the 4-1 victory.

Offense

The Mets struggled to hit against Julio Teheran until they finally broke through for the first run of the game in the top of the fourth inning as Jay Bruce doubled. After Kevin Plawecki flew out,  Adrian Gonzalez followed up with a ground-rule double of his own to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.

In the seventh they scored again, this time after a two-run triple by Amed Rosario (his second of the season), Brandon Nimmo drove him in on a jam shot to center field.

They struck again in the eighth inning as the Mets loaded the bases with one out by way of a Jose Bautista double, Jay Bruce intentional walk, and Kevin Plawecki walk off of  Shane Carle.

That prompted the Atlanta Braves manager, Brian Snitker, to turn to a left-hander to face Adrian Gonzalez, as Sam Freeman entered the game.

Gonzalez hit a first-pitch RBI single to extend the Mets lead to 3-1, but the Mets threat ended after a Luis Guillorme double play in the next at-bat.

The Mets scored once more in the ninth inning, though, as Rosario and Nimmo struck once again, each with doubles of their own to give the Mets their total of four runs for the game.

As a whole, the team recorded nine hits on the night. Brandon Nimmo, Amed Rosario, and Adrian Gonzalez each recorded two.

The four RBI were split evenly between Gonzalez and Nimmo. Rosario scored two of the Mets four runs while Bruce and Bautista each scored one.

On Deck

The Mets head back home to Citi Field to start a nine-game homestand tomorrow night against the Chicago Cubs. Seth Lugo (1-1, 2.48 ERA) will make his first start of the season for the Mets after moving out of the bullpen and will be countered by left-hander Jose Quintana (5-4, 4.78 ERA). The game starts at 7:10 p.m. and will air on SNY.