The Atlanta Braves and New York Mets continued their pivotal series on Tuesday night at Truist Park.
The Atlanta Braves entered play on Tuesday night as winners of seven games in a row and trailing the first-place Mets by four and a half games in the N.L. East. The Braves sent Charlie Morton to the mound looking to keep the momentum going and the Mets countered with Tijuan Walker.
Morton and Walker both got through the first two innings with very little stress and the pitcher’s duel seemed to be on. However, Taijuan Walker would succumb to back spasms after covering first base at the end of the second inning, and for the second straight night the Mets were forced to call on their bullpen heading into the third inning.
New York turned to R.J. Alvarez to start the third inning. Alvarez is a cool story of perseverance as Tuesday marked his first appearance in the big leagues since 2015.
But the Braves didn’t give Alvarez much time to celebrate as Robbie Grossman and Matt Olson welcomed Alvarez back to the show with a pair of long balls in the third and fourth innings respectively, and the Braves jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
This ball should land in South Carolina sometime next week. @mattolson21 | #ForTheA pic.twitter.com/NFvPpSLpi2
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) August 17, 2022
…and the way that Charlie Morton was pitching, the 3-0 lead felt much larger.
Charlie was phenomenal on Tuesday. Morton had all of his pitches working as he repeatedly painted corners and produced swings and misses against a team that is known to be patient and not strike out much.
The elder statesman of the Atlanta starting staff seems to be peaking at the right time as we head down the stretch of the regular season.
Morton pitched six and two-thirds scoreless innings while striking out twelve. The only bit of trouble Morton ran into was giving a single and a walk in the seventh inning.
Dylan Lee then entered the game and struck out the always pesky Jeff McNeil to end the inning and preserve the 3-0 Atlanta lead.
The Braves would add on some insurance runs in the seventh and A.J. Minter and Raisel Iglesias would protect the lead in the final two innings as the Braves picked up their eighth straight win.
The Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets 5-0 on Tuesday night, running their winning streak to eight straight games.
This was an important win for the Braves for a number of reasons. Obviously, you always want to beat the team ahead of you in the standings, but the first two games of this series were important beyond that.
After dropping four of five games to the Mets in New York, it was important that the Braves come out in this series and send a message right back to their N.L. East rivals. They have done that in the first two games, outscoring the Mets in the first two games of this series 18-1.
Next, with Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom lurking on Wednesday and Thursday, it became even more important for the Braves to grab these first two games to ensure that the worst outcome they would endure in this series would potentially be a split.
After a laugher on Monday, Morton came out and did his best deGrom impression on Tuesday, and shaved the Mets’ lead in the division to just three and a half games.
The Braves will look to win the series outright Wednesday night when they send newly-acquired Jake Odorizzi to the bump. Odorizzi will be opposed by Max Scherzer. First pitch is scheduled for 7:20 pm EDT.