Tag: Atlanta Braves

Mets Niese, Tejada Power Sweep of Braves

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: Jon Niese #...

The Mets put the nail in the Braves coffin today at Citi Field to sweep the first series of the season. It’s early, so I’m not getting too excited. I know that this roster doesn’t stack up, on paper, to the other rosters in the division. But I like that they’ve got some fight in them.

The Mets finished off the last game of the series with a 7-5 win highlighted by Jon Niese taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He ended up coming out in the seventh inning before recording an out after throwing 103 pitches.

Ruben Tejada, who usually looks like an automatic out to me, led the Mets offense going 4 for 5 with 2 RBI’s and 2 Runs. Hopefully, it’s not a fluke and he’ll be able to contribute offensively with some consistency.

Here’s some video of the post-game from SNY.

http://web.sny.tv/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=20464291&width=400&height=224&property=sny

Reyes, Murphy Injured in Mets 6-5 Loss To Braves

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 03: Jose Reyes #7 of the N...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

As if it wasn’t bad enough that Bobby Parnell blew the game in the ninth, there are major injuries to talk about. Jose Reyes left the game in the second inning with a mild hamstring strain. Unfortunately, the last time this happened he was out of action for three weeks. Maybe the recurring injuries will keep his contract down in the offseason.

Daniel Murphy was injured more severely in the seventh inning when he took a spike from Jose Constanza in the lower leg at second base. Murphy had just come into the game as a pinch hitter in the inning. The Mets have already put Murphy on the disabled list and called up Ruben Tejada to replace him.

If Reyes goes on the disabled list too, it’s going to be a severe hit to an already under-manned team. The faint glimmer of hope for a late season miracle will be completely out the window with Reyes and Murphy out for any lengthy period of time.

Terry Collins said after the game that Murphy indicated when he was coming off the field that the injury was pretty serious. He was telling them “Get me off the field” as they helped him off.

Mets 11 – Braves 7 August 6, 2011

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 22: Justin Turner #2 of t...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The Mets finally snapped their five game losing streak with a game filled with bad pitching and tons of hitting. The Mets have struggled to score runs this past week but finally teed off on Tommy Hanson and George Sherrill with 16 hits, 5 walks, and 4 home runs. They were led by Justin Turner who went 2 for 5 with 2 homers and 4 RBI’s. He hit on to right and one to left. It was pretty impressive.

Jon Niese didn’t have a good game at all but got the win because of the Mets’ heavy hitting. He went 5 innings and allowed 5 runs. Normally, that wouldn’t result in a win but tonight’s game was unusual. It was encouraging that Bobby Parnell looked pretty good in the eighth inning. He only gave up one walk but he threw 17 pitches, 12 for strikes and he was over 100 mph with his fastball.

The Mets and Braves will play the rubber game of the series tomorrow afternoon.

Box score

Braves 4 – Mets 1 August 5, 2011

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 05: Ryota Igarashi #18 ...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The season continued to dwindle away toward meaningless August and September games tonight. Even the alternate “Los Mets” uniforms couldn’t help this team’s offense. The Mets had next to none with only 4 hits off Braves pitching and couldn’t get anything going against Tim Hudson after an RBI double by David Wright in the first inning. Wright went 2 for 4 and there wasn’t much happening in the lineup after him.

R.A. Dickey pitched really well but went into double-digit losses tonight (5-10). He threw 7 innings and allowed 2 runs, good enough to win with a decent team behind him. Tim Byrdak and Ryota Igarashi allowed a pair of insurance runs for the Braves in the eighth and the game was over. The back of the Braves bullpen doesn’t give up leads.

Box score

Braves 9 – Mets 8 June 16, 2011

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 10: DJ Carrasco #77 of t...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

What a roller coaster this game was. I went from thrilled and excited to utterly disgusted and then even more disgusted. Typical Mets game.

This one went 10 innings tonight. It started out with a rough game by R.A. Dickey. He just didn’t have it and only went 4 innings allowing 4 earned runs. The Mets were down 6-2 after the fourth inning when Jason Bay (yeah, that Jason Bay) hit an RBI single and Scott Hairston hit a bomb of a 3-run homer. We haven’t seen many of those this year. It had me thinking a big comeback win was in the making.

The Mets took an 8-6 lead into the ninth when K-Rod allowed a 2-run homer to pinch hitter Brooks Conrad to tie the game. At least he wouldn’t get another game finished toward his vesting option!

In the tenth inning, D.J. Carrasco allowed 2 hits and a walk. Then he balked with a runner on third base to lose the game. Losing on a balk in the tenth inning! It was horrendous.

The Mets still win the series in Atlanta 2-1 and finish the road trip at 6-4.

Box score

Preview: Mets at Braves June 16, 2011

New York Mets (34-34) at Atlanta Braves (38-31) 7:10pm

R.A. Dickey (3-7 3.98) vs. Mike Minor (0-2 4.50)

TV: SNY              Radio: WFAN

What to watch: Surprisingly, the Mets have a chance to sweep the Braves in Atlanta tonight. They’ll go for it with Dickey on the mound who has lost two of three starts since he hurt his foot. But he’s been pitching really well during that span allowing 7 runs in 23.2 innings (2.72 ERA).

The Braves have Minor on the mound tonight making his fifth start of the season. He’s never pitched more than 6 innings in a start this year and the Braves are 2-2 in his starts. In his last start, he allowed 2 runs over 6 innings in Houston.

Preview: Mets at Braves June 15, 2011

New York Mets (33-34) at Atlanta Braves (38-30) 7:10pm

Dillon Gee (7-0 3.05) vs. Tim Hudson (5-5 4.06)

TV: SNY              Radio: WFAN

What to watch: The Mets can win the series in Atlanta tonight if they take this game. You would have to think they have a great chance to do it behind Gee. The Mets are 9-0 in Gee’s starts this year. He’s been incredible. Gee has only allowed 1 run in his last two starts over 15 innings.

The Mets beat up on Hudson pretty badly on June 5th for 5 runs in 4 innings. Since then, he beat the Astros going 6 innings and allowing 2 runs.

It’ll be interesting to see if Jason Bay is back in the lineup tonight.