After a 3-1 win in Friday night’s series opener with the visiting Toronto Blue Jays, the Atlanta Braves found themselves briefly ahead of the New York Mets for the final wild-card spot in the National League standings.
But that changed when Mark Vientos clubbed a two-run walk-off homer to give the Mets a 6-4 victory in 10 innings over the Cincinnati Reds a few minutes later.
So both the Mets and Atlanta enter Saturday’s action with identical 77-64 records with 21 games to go. But Braves manager Brian Snitker said he isn’t focused on the standings and is taking the old one day at a time approach to the wild-card race.
“I don’t think about (the standings),” Snitker said. “All I think about is that we need to win tomorrow. I don’t get caught up in all that. I know it’s there but it doesn’t do me any good to worry about it because the most important thing we’re going to do this year is play tomorrow’s game.”
Rookie right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach (5-6, 3.69 ERA) will make his first career start against Toronto (67-75) while the Blue Jays will counter with veteran right-hander Jose Berrios (14-9, 3.59). Berrios, tied for fourth in wins in the majors, is 0-1 with a 8.74 ERA in two career starts against Atlanta.
Schwellenbach will try to extend an impressive streak for Atlanta starters who have gone 25 consecutive games allowing three runs or fewer. That’s the longest streak in the majors. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s also the sixth longest streak in major league history. The 2021 Dodgers hold the record of 32 starts in a row.
“It’s been really good,” Snitker said of his pitching staff’s performance. “Those guys have been awesome and the bullpen has done a really solid job. It’s always fun when you pitch good to me. That’s what it’s about, pitching and playing defense.”
Max Fried gave up five hits and one unearned run over seven innings while striking out eight in Friday night’s opening win. Raisel Iglesias struck out the side while pitching a scoreless ninth to earn his 31st save and extend his personal scoreless inning streak to 24 1/3 innings.
Toronto lost for the seventh time in its past nine games. Starter Kevin Gausman gave up all three runs in a 40-pitch second inning when he faced nine batters and allowed three hits and three walks. Matt Olson made the final out with a long drive to the left field fence, just missing a grand slam by a few feet.
“Tough,” Gausman told MLB.com. “I didn’t necessarily get hit around the ballpark, but like I said, that second-inning leadoff walk (to Jorge Soler) with some other things didn’t put myself in a position to have a good inning. I just couldn’t make that one pitch when I needed to, four-seamer cutting a little bit.”
The Blue Jays finished 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and had the tying runs at second and third in the ninth after a two-out double by Joey Loperfido and a single by Nathan Lukes. But Iglesias rebounded to strike out George Springer to end the threat and the game.
“When you get chances, you got to cash in,” Toronto manager John Schneider said.
–Field Level Media
