On the strength of another strong performance by Jacob deGrom and a huge offensive outburst including a home run by Ruben Tejada, the Mets beat the Atlanta Braves by a score of 10-2 to complete the three game sweep.
After striking out a historic eight consecutive batters to begin his last start, deGrom began today’s game by striking out five of the first six batters he faced and seven of his first nine.
The Mets got on the board first after a leadoff double by Matt den Dekker who would then score on fielders choice grounder by Daniel Murphy. They made it 2-0 in the second when Curtis Granderson scored on a sac fly by Ruben Tejada.
The Mets would score two more runs without the benefit of any RBI hits, until Tejada hit a hanging curve for his fourth home run of the season to put the Mets up 5-0 after three. B.J. Upton contributed to a pair of those Met runs with a couple of awful throws to the plate.
Meanwhile deGrom was still dealing on the mound, retiring 12 straight batters through four perfect innings with eight punchouts. Are you freaking kidding me?
The Braves finally got something started against deGrom with back to back singles to begin the 5th inning to put runners on first and third with nobody out. DeGrom induced the double-play grounder, but an error by Tejada allowed the first Braves run to score and still two on. A pair of walks led to another run to cut the Mets lead to 5-2.
In the sixth inning with Anthony Recker on third and Tejada on first, deGrom executed a perfect suicide squeeze to give the Mets another run against a Braves team that was asleep at the switch. Heads are gonna roll in Atlanta as soon as this season ends next weekend, the players look like they’ve all given up.
After six innings and 100 pitches, deGrom’s day was done. The rookie right-hander allowed just one earned run on three hits and three walks while striking out ten. He lowered his ERA to 2.63 for the season and now the question is, was this his final start of the season? The Mets ain’t saying yet…
Buddy Carlyle and Daisuke Matsuzaka each pitched a perfect inning of relief, in the 7th and 8th, and then the game turned into a laugher when the Mets tacked on three more runs in the 9th to make it 10-2.
Erik Goeddel pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the final frame and the ballgame is OH-ver!
Duda and Recker had three hits apiece in the game, while Nieuwenhuis, Granderson and Tejada each collected a pair in the Mets 14 hit attack.
Hey, who was laughing when the Turner Field organist started playing the “Flintstones” theme when Flores came to the plate? Wilma!!!!
So with the victory, the Mets are just a half game out of second place in the NL East behind a Braves team that is disintegrating as we speak.
Up Next: The Mets will have the day off on Monday as they travel to D.C. for the start of a three game set against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday. Bartolo Colon (14-12, 4.02 ERA) will start for the Mets and go up against RHP Tanner Roark (14-10, 2.85 ERA) for the Nats.
