Three games in New York have provided the cure for whatever ailed the Atlanta Braves.
Fresh off a historic doubleheader, the Braves will look to close a four-game sweep of the Mets on Sunday night in New York.
Yonny Chirinos (5-4, 4.83 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Braves against fellow right-hander Kodai Senga (8-6, 3.24).
The Braves followed a 7-0 victory in the series opener on Friday with a dominating performance in the doubleheader on Saturday. They cruised to a 21-3 rout in the opener and posted a 6-0 win in the nightcap.
The 24-run differential in a doubleheader was the third-largest in franchise history and the largest for a Braves team since 1900. The then-Boston Beaneaters outscored the Cincinnati Reds by 32 runs on Aug. 21, 1894, and beat the then-St. Louis Browns by a combined 26 runs on Sept. 3, 1896.
Ozzie Albies homered in both games Saturday and finished with eight RBIs for Atlanta. The Braves went deep six times in the opener — including two by major league home run leader Matt Olson and one by Nicky Lopez, who finished 4-for-6 with five RBIs and then tossed a hitless bottom of the ninth.
Lopez is the first player to have at least four hits and five RBIs while producing a scoreless outing on the mound since the RBI became an official stat in 1920.
As impressive a day as Atlanta had offensively, manager Brian Snitker was even more pleased with starting pitchers Allan Winans and Spencer Strider each throwing seven scoreless innings. Braves starters entered Saturday with an 11.18 ERA over the previous seven games, a span in which the team went 3-4.
“Getting two seven-inning starts is awesome,” Snitker said. “Both of those guys (were) huge, from where we were from the last week.”
The 27 runs surrendered by the Mets on Saturday tied a team record for the most allowed in a single day. The dismal performance in the doubleheader continued a nightmarish season for New York, which posted a 101-61 record last year and lost the NL East tiebreaker to the Braves.
The Mets have been under .500 every day since losing 6-4 to the Braves on June 6. New York was swept in that three-game series despite holding a lead of at least three runs each night.
The Mets haven’t led at all during this series. New York was blanked in Friday’s opener despite coaxing nine walks and recording seven hits.
“Give their pitchers a lot of credit, but it’s going to make it hard to be competitive in those games against that quality of team unless we figure out a way to score some runs,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said.
Chirinos didn’t factor into the decision last Tuesday despite giving up six runs over five innings in the Braves’ 8-6 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. He won his lone career appearance against the Mets on May 16 after allowing three runs in 4 2/3 innings of relief for the Tampa Bay Rays in their 8-5 victory.
Senga earned the win last Monday after allowing two runs over six innings in the Mets’ 11-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs. He has yet to face the Braves in his career.
–Field Level Media
