Since its opening in 1997, Turner Field, home to the first place Atlanta Braves, has seemed like hell to the New York Mets, with Bobby Cox playing the role of the devil. Even when the Mets have fielded competitive teams, they still have struggled in Atlanta.
In 116 contests over the course of 14 seasons, the Mets have won only 38 games while dropping 78 in the new “Home of the Braves.”
However, despite losing the first three games of the series in pitiful fashion, the Mets came out swinging in game four, scoring four runs—a feat they have accomplished only twice in their last seven games—to earn a 4-2 victory.
The Mets plated two runs early, thanks in part to Melky Cabrera’s misplay of a Carlos Beltran line drive that rolled all the way to the wall. Beltran turned on the jets and arrived at third base standing.
Omar Infante’s ill-advised relay throw wound up in the Mets’ dugout, allowing Beltran to score. It was great to see Beltran stretch out that injured knee as he rounded second base. Maybe there will be a happy ending after all to the Beltran saga?
Following back-to-back singles and a walk to Chris Carter, David Wright, and Ike Davis respectively, newest Met Joaquin Arias hit a slow grounder to third that Martin Prado had no play on, allowing Carter to score. The Mets have been abysmal with the bases loaded this season so it was nice to finally see someone get a hit in that situation, albeit an infield hit.
Naturally, even in a Mets’ victory, something has to go wrong. Tonight was no different as Johan Santana left after five innings, only having surrendered one run. Reports claim that he is day-to-day with a strained pectoral muscle. Despite leaving, he earned the win and is now 11-9 on the year with a 2.98 ERA.
David Wright cracked his 22nd home run of the year off Tim Hudson in the sixth inning to give the Mets some needed insurance. Though inconsistent most of the time, Wright has put up some solid numbers for the Amazins this season.
Elmer Dessens, Pedro Feliciano, Bobby Parnell, and Hisanori Takahashi combined for one run on four hits over the final four innings to seal the win for Johan. Once again, we saw Takahashi in the closer’s role, where he recorded his third save of the year.
The win marks the last time the Mets will visit Atlanta this season. They will head to Chicago to open a three-game series with the fifth place Cubs. Saturday will be the highly anticipated first major league start by Mets prospect Jenrry Mejia. In his only start at AAA Buffalo, Mejia allowed one run over eight innings of work while striking out nine.
If the Mets can discover what they have in their young players such as Mejia, Josh Thole, Ruben Tejada, and even Lucas Duda, this final month may actually serve a valuable purpose.
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