It never comes easy for the Mets my friends, even when our ace Matt Harvey is on the mound. But the good news is that as the curtain closed on first act of Super Tuesday, the Mets defeated those annoying Braves by the score of 4-3 today at Turner Field.
Harvey flirted with history today, taking a no-hitter all the way into the seventh inning, but alas it wasn’t meant to be as Jason Heyward broke it up with a squibbler to the mound that Harvey fielded and flipped to first base where Lucas Duda was nowhere to be found. Damn it!
Still, the Mets’ prized righthander got out of the seventh with the shutout intact and the Mets up 2-0 Yes, let me repeat that – the Mets up 2-0.
The Mets added two more runs in the top of the eighth to hand Harvey a comfortable lead, but as I said in my opening sentence, nothing comes easy for this team.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Braves came roaring back to load the bases with nobody out, sending Harvey to the showers with the game hanging in the balance. LaTroy Hawkins came in to relieve and was greeted by a two-run single by Jordan Schafer, then in came Scott Rice who allowed another run to score on Jason Heyward RBI double. Geesh… Thankfully, closer Bobby Parnell struck out Chris Johnson to preserve the now one-run lead.
Harvey picked up the win to improve to 6-1 and struck out a career-high 13 batters. Parnell would pitch a clean ninth to pick up his first save of the month and tenth of the season.
The Mets scored first in the third inning on an RBI single by Marlon Byrd and then John Buck hit his 11th homer of the season in the fourth for the Mets second run. The insurance runs in the eighth came on a bases loaded walk by Jordany Valdespin and a sac fly by Omar Quintanilla.
I actually have a special treat for all of you, as Ed Leyro will be covering Zack Wheeler‘s debut and recap later tonight, as the final act of Super Tuesday gets set to begin at 7:10 PM. Wheeler will be opposed by lefthander Paul Maholm (7-5, 3.65 ERA) for the Braves.
