Charlie Morton, Marcell Ozuna power Braves to win over the Mets

In the rubber game between the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets, two veteran arms took the mound in Charlie Morton and Jose Quintana. After dropping the opening game of the series, the Braves looked to take yet another series against the Mets.

After a dominant start against the Yankees, where he went six shutout innings while striking out 10, he one upped himself against the Mets, going seven scoreless with 11 punch outs. In those two starts, his command has been the best it has been all season.

The Braves got things started, as they have so many times this season in the first inning. After back to back hits by Austin Riley and Matt Olson, Marcell Ozuna got another base hit to drive in Riley to open the scoring. It would be just the beginning of what would be a big night for Ozuna.

Morton had his strikeout stuff going from the get go, striking out five batters through two innings, including striking out the side in the second.

After the first inning, Quintana dialed in as well, locking the Braves lineup down from the second through the fifth inning, using his experience and deceptive stuff to keep the Braves at bay. While Quintana was dealing, Morton kept matching him pitch for pitch, striking out nine through four innings. In addition to his nasty curveball, he had really good fastball command, as well as an effective changeup he would mix in to keep hitters honest.

The Braves offense is one that can heat up in an instant, which the Mets saw first-hand tonight, and have seen throughout the season. Austin Riley started off the rally with a base hit, and just like he did in the first inning, Marcel Ozuna drove Riley in, this time with an RBI double. Sean Murphy then delivered an RBI hit to drive in Ozuna. After a base hit by Harris, Vaughn Grissom hit a two run triple to make it a 5-0 game.

After a dominant seventh inning by Morton to finish a sublime start, Marcel Ozuna would come back for more in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs in the bottom half of the inning, Matt Olson got a base hit to right field, then the red hot Ozuna hit a towering two run home run to left field to make it 7-0.

That home run put the game way out of reach for the Mets and after scoreless innings from Michael Tonkin and Kirby Yates, the Braves got a shut out victory to give the Braves their 82nd win of the season to officially give them yet another season above .500.

After another series win, the Braves will go on a long 10 game west coast trip where they will visit San Francisco, Colorado and Los Angeles. They start out in San Francisco, where they will face the Giants for the second time in a week. After an off day tomorrow, first pitch will be at 10:15 p.m. ET on Friday and will be shown on Bally Sports Southeast.