NEW YORK — As the Braves swept a doubleheader in opposition to the Mets on Saturday at Citi Field, it was once more apparent how a lot has modified for these National League East rivals inside a 12 months.
Memories of the battles these groups waged over final season’s remaining two months pale additional into the space because the Braves claimed a 21-3 victory within the first sport and a 6-0 win within the nightcap.
“[There’s] a lot more pleasure [beating the Mets] because they always say they are going to beat us,” Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies mentioned. “That’s all I can say.”
Matt Olson elevated his MLB lead with a pair of homers within the opener, and Spencer Strider spent the second sport extending the scoreless streak fellow beginning pitchers Charlie Morton and Allan Winans had began. By the time the dual invoice was over, the Braves had outscored the Mets 34-3 in the course of the first three video games of this four-game collection.
The 24-run differential in Saturday’s video games made the Braves the primary workforce to outscore its opponent by 20-plus runs in a doubleheader for the reason that Rangers outscored the Orioles 39-10 over a pair of video games on Aug. 22, 2007.
“It’s just the way these guys are wired,” Braves supervisor Brian Snitker mentioned. “These guys by no means give up.”
The Braves’ beginning pitchers (Morton, Winans and Strider) have mixed to throw 19 scoreless innings on this collection. The Mets didn’t even rating in opposition to Braves backup infielder Nicky Lopez, who highlighted a four-hit sport with a homer within the opener after which tossed a scoreless ninth in his second profession pitching look.
With the starters overlaying 14 innings and Lopez one other, the Braves wanted simply three innings from their common relievers on Saturday. This offered a much-needed relaxation for a aid corps that was taxed when Atlanta’s starters went fewer than 5 innings 4 instances in a five-game span final week.
The first-place Braves are 23 1/2 video games in entrance of the Mets within the National League East. This definitely wasn’t envisioned when New York constructed a payroll barely north of $350 million. Nor was this anticipated after these two groups ended final 12 months’s 162-game common season with the identical report.
But indicators of separation grew to become seen round this time final 12 months. Looking again at how the Braves received a fifth straight division crown in 2022, it’s typically identified that they entered May 10 1/2 video games behind the Mets. But perhaps extra spectacular was that Atlanta overcame the 6 1/2-game deficit created on Aug. 7, after New York received 4 instances throughout a five-game collection at Citi Field.
The Braves took three of 4 in Atlanta a bit of greater than every week later they usually have now received 14 of 16 in opposition to the Mets going again to Aug. 15, 2022. This consists of the ultimate weekend’s three-game sweep that determined the season collection, which served because the tiebreaker for the division title.
There received’t be a necessity for a tiebreaker this 12 months. The Mets are 1-8 within the season collection. New York got here to Atlanta simply three video games again in early June. They acquired swept and exited June 18 1/2 video games behind the Braves. Their extended struggles led to buying and selling each Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander on the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline.
The Braves have been 29 1/2 video games higher than the Mets going all the way in which again to Aug. 7, 2022, once they left New York having simply misplaced three of 4 to a Mets membership that gave the impression to be the higher workforce on the time.
How unhealthy are issues now for the Mets? Well, they couldn’t even prolong their traditional success in opposition to Strider, who pitched round 4 walks and scattered three hits whereas recording six strikeouts over seven scoreless innings.
This marked simply the third time in six begins in opposition to the Mets that Strider allowed fewer than 4 runs. It additionally marked the primary time he accomplished greater than 5 innings in opposition to New York.
While this was an efficient outing for Strider, it’s value noting he has simply 9 strikeouts over his previous two begins. He entered Monday’s begin in Pittsburgh having tallied a minimum of 9 strikeouts in 17 of twenty-two begins this 12 months.
“We want games like this to happen every single night,” Albies mentioned. “It’s great to see how we played in these two games.”
Content Source: www.mlb.com