Atlanta Braves Game 2: offense comes to life late vs. Mets pitching

For the second straight day, the Atlanta Braves offense had no answer for Mets pitching.  Until…

You might think that between excellent starting pitching and all the power present in this Atlanta Braves lineup, that it wouldn’t be a matter of needing everyone hitting consistently in order to win.

But they do need somebody hitting.

On Friday, the visiting Braves mustered only 3 hits and no runs.  On Saturday, it was 3 hits and a lone tally that came courtesy of an Adam Duvall homer.

At least until later on… we’ll get to that.

The opportunities were there — particularly in the 8th inning when Austin Riley and pinch hitter Matt Adams installed themselves on the corners with 2 outs… and then a lefty-righty matchup against Ronald Acuna ended up going bust as Justin Wilson made him wave at his sliders to end the threat.

In truth, that’s been the issue:  the Mets have successfully mixed moving fastballs with devastating sliders to keep Braves hitters guessing.

Met starter Stephen Matz K’d seven Braves while only 1 hitter (Freeman) walked.  The threats were few and far between.

At least Duvall’s solo shot was entertaining: it came shortly after this tweet…

… and here’s what Duvall thought about letting those dogs out:

Marcell Ozuna‘s Big Fly

Fast-forward to the 9th inning. Ozzie Albies and Freddie Freeman both made quick outs.  Still nothing going for the Braves.

Then Marcell Ozuna worked the count to 3-2 and swung hard.

What happened?  Another oppo-taco shot that gave Met fans instant abdominal cramps:  top of the 9th inning, two outs, full count… with closer Edwin Diaz on the mound.  Tie ballgame.

We’ve been used to seeing Atlanta come up with late fire to come back against numerous opponents.  They usually don’t wait this long, but we take these things.  Welcome to the Braves, Marcell!

That homer still meant that the bullpen still had to work through the Mets.  Luke Jackson made things interesting but managed to get Brave-killer McNeil to send us to extra innings.

Max Fried’s Day

The hope was that Max Fried could match what Mike Soroka did on Friday… and while everyone was praising Jacob deGrom‘s outing, Soroka arguably outpitched him.

Fried was very good Saturday, but had flashes of inconsistency that saw him trying too hard to throw better pitches at times.  Catcher Alex Jackson did an excellent job in settling him down — especially in the second inning when trouble was brewing.

In the fifth, though, trouble came too quickly:  after a fly out, Fried yielded a double and triple before hitting a batter.  A sacrifice fly later from Jeff McNeil (of course) plated a second run.

That was all the Mets needed.

Atlanta Braves Takeaways

• Josh Tomlin was brilliant in relief (6th inning).  He had the Mets completely off stride.
• A.J. Minter was also excellent after a first-batter hit.
• Darren O’Day:  also very good.
• All three of these pitchers struck out 2 hitters and kept the team in the game until Ozuna’s heroics tied it up.
• Max Fried will be fine… guessing his day was mostly about ‘first game jitters’.
• Alex Jackson is doing very well behind the plate.  It’s just a shame that we can’t see him get off the schnide while holding a bat:  he’s still hitless.
• No word about Mark Melancon.  He not only didn’t pitch, but was also not seen warming up at any point.  Late word is that he was ‘dealing with a back issue’ (per Brian Snitker).  That will be something to monitor.

Still, it was a late effort, but a full-team late effort. The Atlanta Braves are now 1-1 on the year and have broken through in the Big Apple.  One more game in this series – to be seen on ESPN.

See y’all Sunday night.