The New York Mets (9-7) defeated the Atlanta Braves (4-13) tonight at Turner Field by a score of 8-2 in the second game of a the weekend series.
Offense:
The Mets got things started early off Braves starter Jhoulys Chacin, scratching out two runs in the first. Curtis Granderson led off the game with a single to center, followed two batters later by Michael Conforto, who knocked a single of his own. Lucas Duda hit his first sacrifice fly of the year, scoring Granderson from third.
Conforto proceeded to steal second, which was followed up by Neil Walker‘s first walk of the season. The next hitter was Asdrubal Cabrera, who reached on an error by Freddie Freeman that also scored Coforto, the Mets’ second run of the inning. Granderson and Conforto both had good nights at the plate, with Grandy going 2-for-5 with a double and Conforto going 2-for-3 with a walk and that stolen base.
Things were quiet again until the Mets put together a little rally in the fourth. Travis d’Arnaud got things started with a single, followed by a Granderson walk a few batters later. Then it was David Wright who came through, knocking a double to right that scored them both and gave the Mets a 4-1 lead.
The Mets put up one more in the seventh off Matt Marksberry when Asdrubal Cabrera drove in David Wright, who had led off the inning with another double. Wright went 2-for-6 on the night.
Piling on, the Mets put up a few more in the top of the ninth off Ryan Weber. In what now seems like a daily occurrence, the Mets hit back-to-back home runs to lead off the inning. This time it was Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera, each hitting homers to right. Walker’s was his seventh of the year while Cabrera’s was his first. Both are hitting extremely well. With his performance tonight, Walker brought up his line to .288/.299/.606. Cabrera now sits at .322/.375/.441.
To top it all off Juan Lagares got in on the action later in the inning, knocking a triple to right field that scored Travis d’Arnaud. Both Lagares and d’Arnaud had good nights, each going 2-for-5 at the dish.
Pitching:
Coming off seven shutout innings against the Indians on Sunday, Steven Matz pitched pretty well this evening, tossing 6.1 innings and allowing just two runs.
Matz ran into trouble in the third when he hit Nick Markakis, allowed a single to Daniel Castro, and then gave up an RBI-double to Freddie Freeman, the Braves’ first run of the game. He was, however, able to get two straight outs to get out of trouble.
In the seventh, with Matz’s pitch count getting up there, he allowed Drew Stubbs to single and steal second. Matz gave up one final run-scoring single to Markakis before being pulled by Terry Collins. Matz ended up getting the win, allowing two earned runs on nine hits, no walks (one HBP), and nine strikeouts in 6.1 innings.
The bullpen easily took care of the last 2.2 innings as Hansel Robles, Addison Reed, and Logan Verrett finished things off to close out the 8-2 victory.
On Deck:
The Mets finish off the series looking for a sweep tomorrow afternoon at Turner Field as Jacob deGrom (6 IP, 1.50 ERA) faces off against top Braves prospect Aaron Blair. First pitch is at 1:35 PM.
