The season has begun for the Atlanta Braves, and they have had a hot start to the year with a 7-3 record going into the NL East series with the Mets. The Braves are coming off an amazing season, as they finished with the best record in the MLB but exited the playoffs early with a divisional-round loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
In Game 1, the Braves sent their veteran right handed pitcher to the mound in Charlie Morton. Morton previously went 7 innings of shutout ball in his first appearance of the season against the Phillies. This time, Morton would not have had the same amount of success as he had earlier. Morton began the game strong with four light-out innings, as the Braves offense would gain a four-run lead heading into the 5th inning.
But the Mets would jump all over Morton as they would score five runs to gain the lead over the Braves, and this would end Charlie’s night after 5.2 innings. The Braves offense picked up more runs in the 7th and 8th inning as they hit multiple doubles to regain the lead. But right when the Braves would regain the lead, the Mets struck back with a three-run eighth inning that would give the Mets the win over the Braves in game 1.
During game 2, the Braves sent their newly acquired pitcher Reynaldo Lopez, to the mound to face the Mets Adrian Houser. Reynaldo would dominate the Mets for six innings as he collected six strikeouts on the night. The Braves offense, led by Ronald Acuña Jr. with two hits, would once again jump out to a four-run lead with RBIs delivered by Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley.
The Braves would score twice more in the 7th to gain a 6-1 lead heading into the 8th inning. But the Mets would not go away as they picked off 2 runs off of a Pete Alonso home run in the 8th, and then they would score 3 more runs in the 9th but fell just short of a comeback as the Braves would secure the win 6-5 and even the series up at 1.
In the series finale, the Braves sent rookie Alan Winans to the mound to attempt to wrap up the series with a win. But the hopeful success for the rookie was not in the cards today, as he would allow seven runs in the first three innings of the game. Winans would exit the game after that and turn it over to the bullpen to handle. The Braves attempted to come back, as they would cut the lead to 4 in the 5th inning with 3 runs scored in the inning. But the Mets continued to pour on the runs, as they would score nine runs in the final three innings to win the game 16-4. The Mets won the series 2-1.
As the Braves lost this series, they will head to Miami to take on the Miami Marlins in a three-game series. The Braves will look to regather themselves and fix the problems they experienced with the Mets.
