Statement Series

By : Mike Rifkin

On Sunday the New York Mets defeated the Atlanta Braves 5-2, taking four of five in the series and pushing their lead in the National League East to 6.5 over the Braves. For the first time this season the defending World Series Champions have lost three games in a row.

In the four wins Mets pitchers racked up 51 strikeouts including 19 in Sunday’s finale. The last two games were exactly how Mets manager Buck Showalter drew it up by having his two aces close out the series and potentially drop the hammer on the Braves. Saturday Max Scherzer struck out 11 Braves in seven innings of work and on Sunday in his second start back Jacob deGrom was perfect threw five innings before a walk and a two run home run ended his day, but he still struck out 12 in 5.2 innings.

Offensively the Mets did what they do and that was grind out at bats and force Braves starters into deep pitch counts. Pete Alonso drove in seven runs in the five games giving him a National League leading 95 on the season. The guys the Mets got at the trade deadline also came through. Tyler Naquin, Darin Ruf and Daniel Vogelbach all contributed big hits in the series including Naquin with a two home run game in his Citi Field debut. 

The Mets recipe for success this season was on point during this series. Tremendous starting pitching, good defense and offensively grinding out at bats. On the flip side the Braves made five errors defensively in the series including three in game two of the doubleheader on Saturday. Buck Showalter showed the importance of this series in the first game where he asked All Star Closer Edwin Diaz to get the last six outs of the ball game. 

With the Mets lead pushed to 6.5 games in the NL East the two teams still have two series remaining head to head. The first one is a four game series next week and the other is a three game series the second to last series of the season.