Braves dink-and-dunk their way to victory over Mets

Sean Newcomb and the rest of the Braves’ pitching staff did a good job of holding a somewhat underwhelming Mets lineup at bay tonight. Meanwhile, the offense did just enough run manufacturing in order to pick up a 3-2 win over New York.

The Braves were the first team to light up the scoreboard in this one, and the run actually came about in weird fashion. With runners on first and third base, David Freitas hit a grounder to first base that brought in Dansby Swanson with no problem. However, the run came off the board for a bit when the umpire ruled that there was catcher’s interference. If the call stood, Freitas would’ve been awarded first base but Swanson had to go back to third. This resulted in the rare occasion of a manager actually choosing to decline the ruling, so the Braves chose to take the out and the run as well. You got all that?

Anyways, Atlanta’s lead didn’t last long because the Mets fired right back in the very next frame. Gavin Cecchini led off the third inning with a double and thanks to a sacrifice bunt and a groundout, he eventually made it home to tie the game. This cost the Mets two outs, and Sean Newcomb picked up the final out of the inning by striking out Brandon Nimmo to end the chance right there.

The Mets didn’t stop scoring completely, though. They led off the fourth inning with another double, and then Dominic Smith delivered a double of his own to bring home Asdrubal Cabrera in order to put the Mets in the lead for the first time of the evening.

While the Mets picked the third and fourth inning to respond to Atlanta’s early scoring, the Braves decided that the fifth inning would be their time to strike. David Freitas led off the fifth with a double, and then Ender Inciarte cashed in the runner on second by hitting a single to tie the game at 2. The next two at-bats ended up being very fruitful, as Ozzie Albies worked his way to first base via walk, and Freddie Freeman eventually earned an intentional free pass after a wild pitch moved Inciarte and Albies up 90 feet.

Lane Adams hit a deep fly ball that stayed in the ballpark, but was more-than-deep enough to bring in Inciarte from home plate to put the Braves in the lead. The Braves could’ve scored more after Nick Markakis hit a liner up the middle that deflected off of Rafael Montero’s glove, but Dansby Swanson flew out to end the scoring chance there.

The Mets had a chance to respond in the sixth inning, and things were looking shaky after Sean Newcomb left the game with the bases loaded and one out. Fortunately, Dan Winkler entered the game at this point and induced an inning-ending double play to escape the jam and preserve the lead.

From that point forward, it was up to the bullpen to make sure that the lead stayed intact, and the bullpen did their job. Winkler passed the baton to Jose Ramirez for the seventh inning. Ramirez got through that frame clean and handed the baton to Sam Freeman for the eighth. Freeman kept his solid season going for another frame, and that culminated with Arodys Vizcaino getting the save opportunity in the ninth. He didn’t run into to many major problems, so the Braves ended up leaving SunTrust Park with their 67th win of the season.

There wasn’t really anything too spectacular about tonight’s game, but wins are always lovely and you will never see us complain about wins around here! Hopefully there’s more of the same for the rest of the weekend series.