The Mets defeated the Atlanta Braves 2-1 on Wednesday night at Citi Field thanks to heroics at the plate and in the field.
Here are some key takeaways …
– Pitching on his 26th birthday, Tylor Megill entered Wednesday’s start coming off two straight six-inning shutout outings. He allowed a pair of singles to start the second inning, but the right-hander showed his patented poise by retiring the next three straight to get out of the inning unscathed.
– The Mets broke the scoreless tie with a two-out rally in the third inning. After Megill singled, Brandon Nimmo walked and Pete Alonso singled to load the bases. Jeff McNeil then delivers by punching a single to left to make it a 1-0 game. The RBI hit also extended McNeil’s hitting streak to 15 games, the longest of his career.
– Megill was simply outstanding through the first five innings, holding the Braves scoreless. He was left in the game to bat in the bottom of the fifth, with the Mets hoping to get even more length out of the right-hander. But in the top of the sixth, the red-hot Austin Riley smoked a solo home run off of Megill to tie the game 1-1.
Megill’s night ended there, as he went 5.1 innings allowing just one earned run on five hits while striking out six and walking one on 94 pitches. He lowered his season ERA to 2.04. Only Nolan Ryan (1.99) had a lower ERA for a Mets rookie through his first seven starts.
– With the game still tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh, it was Brandon Drury coming up huge off the bench again, as he demolished a solo home run off of Max Fried with two outs in the inning.
Drury is now 6-for-6 in the month of July.
– In the top of the eighth, Aaron Loup — who has been outstanding for the Mets this season — allowed a pair of singles to Joc Pederson and Ozzie Albies before a grounder back to him put the runners at second and third with one out. There, Luis Rojas went to Jeurys Familia, who struck out Riley for a huge second out before forcing a Dansby Swanson groundout to get out of the jam.
– With a one-run lead in the ninth, Edwin Diaz allowed a leadoff double to Abraham Almonte. Ehire Adrianza later singled to right, but Michael Conforto came up with a gem of a throw home, and James McCann applied the tag to nail Almonte at the plate. Diaz then closed the door to earn the save.
Highlights
What’s next
The Mets and Braves finish their series on Thursday afternoon at 12:10 p.m. on SNY.
Taijuan Walker will face lefty Drew Smyly.