The Braves never led in this one, as the Mets took the lead early thanks to home run from Wilmer Flores and never looked back. Despite a furious rally from Atlanta in the ninth inning, the Mets held on and eventually won the game 5-3.
Alex Wood went into tonight's contest having given up only two home runs all season. That particular stat changed tonight, and it changed in a big way. In the second inning, Wilmer Flores floated a 1-1 pitch into the Party City deck in left field for a solo shot, putting the Mets up by one.
The Mets added to their lead in the fourth inning, and it came after Wilmer Flores walked with one out. That's when John Mayberry Jr. came up to bat. Mayberry already had a homer in his career against Alex Wood, and he added another when he hammered one to left field, making it 3-0 New York. Just like that, the Braves were in a hole and Wood was in an unfamiliar position.
Alex Wood did not surrender two home runs in any of his previous 46 career starts.
Meanwhile, Bartolo Colon spent the first four innings of this game absolutely befuddling the Braves (as usual as far as this season is concerned). However, the Braves managed to get to Colon in the fifth inning. The Braves started off the inning with three straight singles to load the bases, but the man who came to the plate in the bases loaded-nobody out situation was Alex Wood. Wood hit one straight to shortstop for what should've been a double play, but the Mets were only able to get the out at second base and the Braves were on the board. Jace Peterson came up next, and he did a lot more with his opportunity. He drilled a double to right field to bring in a run, making it 3-2 Mets. Unfortunately, that was as close as the Braves would get to the Mets tonight.
The Mets expanded their lead in sixth inning when they took advantage of a botched pickoff throw by Wood by scoring via groundout shortly after the error to make it 4-2. The Braves once again loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh inning, but unfortunately, Nick Markakis grounded into a double play. A run scored, but the Mets definitely benefited more from that particular trade.
New York added another run in the bottom of the seventh to make it 5-3, and that's how it stayed as the game headed into the top of the ninth inning. With one out, Jace Peterson walked and Cameron Maybin singled. Then Freddie Freeman walked to load the bases with one out and put the Braves in a threatening position to possibly extend the game. Any hopes of a second-consecutive extra-innings affair were quickly dashed when Nick Markakis capped off a poor individual night by grounding into a game-ending double play.
Atlanta definitely had their opportunities to change the outcome of this one, but they couldn't take advantage, and now we're talking about a loss. Hopefully this won't be a bad omen for the Braves this weekend, especially as they head into what will probably be a very tough game against Jacob deGrom.
Source: FanGraphs
