Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: 1 inning, 1 price, 1 plan

A shaky start from Foltynewicz is too much to overcome as Braves fail smell test with Colon

The good news?  Mike Foltynewicz threw 98 pitches Monday night.  The bad?  It took less than four innings to amass that number.  Foltynewicz got to full counts against seven batters (plus another 3-1 count) and could not really get anything going last night in his 2016 major league debut.  Not counting the intentional pass, he did only walk one batter while striking out 4, but it was the first inning in which pitches were straight and true and hammered out of Citi Field… three of them flying out into the night air.

After that, he kinda settled in, but the pitch count was mounting, and the bullpen had to rescue him after 8 hits and two were out in the fourth inning.

After that, two rehab projects were on display:  Bud Norris and Eric O’Flaherty.  In nearly 4 innings of work between them, the Mets were more-or-less shut down – 2 walks from Norris being the only damage… in fact, once Foltynewicz departed, the Mets had no further hits and no runs.  This pair (plus Alexi Ogando) performed their tasks well while waiting on the Braves offense to get something going.

That didn’t happen.

Atlanta only managed a late run off of Jeurys Familia.  But the real story was… once again… Bartolo Colon.

Bartolo Colon…all nearly 43 years of him… worked 8 innings of shutout ball, scattering 7 hits with 7 strikeouts.  Maybe he really is two years younger than the birth certificate indicates…or more.  Big Sexy just keep rolling out there and mowing down the Braves.  Since coming to the Mets, Colon has never given up more than 3 earned runs in any outing against the Braves.  This time, though, was the first ‘no runs’ stint as he scattered hits and base runners all night, getting key strikeouts and outs where needed.

Tonight we go to the Matts:  Matt Wisler vs. Matt Harvey.  7:10pm start.  Here’s your box:

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