The New York Mets (8-4) took down the Atlanta Braves (7-5) by a final of 6-3 in their first meeting of the season. The evening’s winning pitcher was starter Steven Matz, while Braves’ starter Kevin Gausman was pegged with the loss. Edwin Diaz came away with his fifth save of the season.
Offense
After going down in order against righty Kevin Gausman the prior inning, the Mets answered with a three-spot in the second. Michael Conforto and Wilson Ramos each drew a pair of walks before Amed Rosario cracked his first homer of the young season – a bomb on a high fastball that landed in the bullpen in right-center field.
The Mets managed nothing beyond a Pete Alonso walk in the third inning and a Juan Lagares single in the fifth, but woke up just in time to knock Gausman out of the sixth. Ramos capped off a ten-pitch at-bat with an opposite-field base knock with two down before Jeff McNeil peppered in a single into right that moved Ramos to third. Against reliever Wes Parsons, Rosario drove in an insurance run with a groundball base hit to right – his fourth RBI on the night.
Brandon Nimmo led off the seventh with a four-pitch walk against left-hander Jonny Venters before the Pete Alonso show picked back up – this time in the form of a 118.3 mph home run (the hardest-hit homer this year, according to Statcast) into the lagoon above the batter’s eye in straightaway center. With the 454-foot bomb, Alonso now has six homers and 17 runs batted in – both good for second in the National League. His .909 slugging percentage is the second-highest in the majors behind none other than Mike Trout.
Robinson Cano went hitless with two strikeouts in his turns at the plate. He is currently batting .180 with a .561 OPS in his first 50 at-bats in a Met uniform.
Pitching
Steven Matz began his first inning of work with two outs on four pitches, but surrendered a ground-rule double to Freddie Freeman before Ronald Acuna Jr. smacked a run-scoring triple to dead center three pitches later. The ball left the bat with an exit velocity of 101 mph, though could have been pulled in with a less circuitous route from Juan Lagares, who dropped the liner right at the warning track. The Braves went back to work with a one-out homer off the bat of Johan Camargo. Matz would limit the damage to the lone run, albeit on 28 pitches thanks to a walk and flurry of 2-2 and 3-2 counts.
Matz pushed back through the next three innings, striking out a pair in each inning amidst a string of 13 consecutive outs. The lefty retired eight total via strikes, bringing his rate per nine innings to 10.62 (the second-best in the rotation behind ace Jacob deGrom).
A base hit by Acuña with two down in the sixth broke Matz’s streak, but not his stride, and with his 102nd pitch of the evening, the lefty induced a 4-3 groundout from Nick Markakis to earn his first quality start of the year. To this point in the 2019 season, the lefty has allowed just one earned run after the first inning, and leads the pitching staff with a pristine 1.65 ERA. With tonight’s victory, Matz enjoys his first winning decision since July 26.
In Matz’s place, Robert Gsellman pitched a scoreless seventh, though not without its share of hitches. The righty allowed two singles before walking Matt Joyce to load the bases, but fought back with a strikeout of Ozzie Albies before coaxing a forceout from Josh Donaldson to leave the Braves off the board.
The eighth inning, too, had its share of events, as Acuña took Luis Avilan to the back of the bleachers in left field to pull Atlanta within three. Jeurys Familia was summoned for the last two outs of the inning, and succeeded with a pair of strikeouts, one of which featured an ejection of Braves’ skipper Brian Snitker and the other of which followed a walk and stolen base by Dansby Swanson.
Up by three in the bottom of the ninth, the Mets gave Edwin Diaz the ball. Despite allowing a leadoff single from Tyler Flowers and opposite-field double from Donaldson, the flamethrower got the last laugh, blowing away Freeman on a high fastball to lock down the win.
On Deck
The Mets will look to build off tonight’s success tomorrow ahead of their second game in a four-game set with Atlanta. They will get their first taste of highly-touted prospect Kyle Wright, who will battle Georgia-native Zack Wheeler, who hopes to steer his 10.24 ERA in the right direction. First pitch is scheduled for 7:20 ET on SNY.
