The New York Mets arrived in Atlanta on Monday with their NL East Division lead over the Red Hot Braves at 1.5 games. On June 1st, New York’s lead over the Braves was 10.5 games, but the the Braves went on a 38-9 run to improve their record to 52-36 and put themselves in a position to take over 1st place with a sweep of the Mets.
The Mets entered the series with two of their starters out with injuries, Starling Marte (groin – Day to Day) and James McCann out on the IL (oblique Injury) and Jeff McNeil out on Paternity leave. The Mets called up CF Travis Jankowski and C Patrick Mazeika to help fill the void and give them a fighting chance against the charging Braves.
On Monday the Mets sent Max Scherzer to the mound against the Braves Max Fried, and Scherzer outpitched the Braves lefty by tossing seven strong innings, allowing just three hits, and one run, while striking out nine batters, to improve to 6-1, with a 2.15 ERA. The Mets offense took over with two in the fourth to break a 0-0 tie and one each in the eighth and ninth and gave the ball to their All Star closer, Edwin Diaz and he struck out the side to earn his 19th save. With the win in game one, the Mets increased their lead over the Braves to 2.5 games.
On Tuesday night, both teams battled through four scoreless innings, before the Mets took a 1-0 lead in the fifth on an RBI triple off the bat of Francisco Lindor. The Braves answered back to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run blast off the bat of Matt Olson and in the next frame, the Braves added two more runs on a two run bomb off the bat of Adam Duvall. The bullpen held off the Mets and Atlanta pulled back within 1.5 games of the NL Lead.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Metropolitans scored four runs in the first three innings to take a 4-0 lead and never looked back. Eduardo Escobar put the Mets on the board early in the second with a bomb way over right field fence. Then an inning later, Lindor hit a three run dinger over the right field wall to extend the Mets lead. In the sixth, the Mets added another run on a Mark Canha blast and then two more in the seventh to increase their lead to 7-1 and eventually closed the game on the Braves with a 7-3 score.
The Mets looked like the team that came into the series needing some help to stay on top of their division, but ended up better then they entered and gained a game to increase their lead to 2.5 games. The Mets also proved, that even with some of their big guns sidelined, they still have enough on the roster to continue their ride to a Division crown. So much more baseball is left to be played, especially with 11 more games against the Division Rivals. Its going to be a great run down the stretch to see who will eventually win the race.
