The Braves bats hit a trio of solo homers against Jacob deGrom and did more damage against the Mets bullpen en route to winning Game 1 of a pivotal series against the New York Mets on Friday night.
With the win, the Braves improved to 98-59 on the year and tied with the Mets atop the NL East.
The Mets had a few base runners off Max Fried at the top of the first after Brandon Nimmo pulled the swing out to start the game. Pete Alonso singled down the middle and was replaced at first by Francisco Lindor, who hit a grounder on the third base line on which Riley made a good play to bring Alonso to second. Fried forced Canha out to keep the frame scoreless.
deGrom retired the Braves in order late in the first on a groundout and two strikeouts.
In the top of the second, another great play from Riley was booked by two less than good plays from Eddie Rosario in left field, which led to the Mets scoring the first inning of the game. First, Rosario appeared to lose a fly ball from Jeff McNeil in the lights, and Eduardo Escobar tattooed a single on the head of Dansby Swanson to put the runners first and second with no outs. In his first Major League batting, Francisco Alvarez threw a double play against Riley that wiped out the men at first and second but allowed McNeil to advance to third, and McNeil scored on a Luis Guillorme line drive that Rosario just played badly. A flyout from Tomas Nido to Ronald Acuña Jr. ended the round.
New York’s lead didn’t last long, however, as Riley and Olson went back-to-back down the frame to give the Braves a 2-1 advantage.
With a lead, Fried set up and struck out 10 consecutive Mets in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Atlanta looked to potentially add to its lead late in the third when Orlando Arcia led off with a single and advanced to second on an Acuña Jr. pitch, but a Swanson strikeout and an Arcia TOOTBLAN ended to threat. deGrom matched Fried’s performance in the fourth and fifth, sitting the Braves in order.
Fried ended up having to leave the game early after falling suddenly ill in the bottom of the fifth inning, and he went out after allowing one run on four hits with three strikeouts and no walks in 5.0 innings. launched and finally won the victory. The bullpen picked it up, however, as Collin McHugh, Raisel Iglesias and AJ Minter combined to give up a single run on three total hits over the next three frames, and that run showed up. in the form of a circuit from Nido off Minter in the eighth.
The Braves finally broke through in the sixth when Swanson hit a commanding one-out shot to left center field, good for his 100e career home run to increase the lead to 3-1.
The Mets headed to their bullpen after the stretch, and Atlanta was able to tackle a pair of runs against Tylor Megill to make it 5-1. Olson hit a first single, and Travis d’Arnaud followed it with a wall double into center field, setting up a Rosario sack fly to score Olson. d’Arnaud came to score on the second double of the set against the wall, this one to the center left of Arcia’s bat. Trevor May came into the game and pulled Acuña Jr. out to end the frame, but the damage was already done.
Kenley Jansen let things get a little interesting in the ninth, loading the bases with courtesy of a Canha HBP, McNeil single and Escobar walk. However, Jansen knocked out Alvarez, who finished his first day without a hit, followed by Tyler Naquin on nine at-bats to block runners and earn his 38e backup of the season.
The pivotal series continues tomorrow when Kyle Wright takes on Max Scherzer at 7:20 p.m.