Mets KO the Braves chances for a Wild Card berth
The New York Mets ended the Atlanta Braves’ hopes for any October postseason play with a fine effort by the Mets’ rookie pitching phenom, Jacob deGrom, as they beat the Braves 10-2.
Ervin Santana had no trouble summing up the collapse that ended Atlanta’s postseason hopes.
“As a pitcher, we have our confidence up, but you either have to throw a complete game shutout or something like that to get a win,” he said. “It’s very tough.”
Santana is talking about a weak and unproductive Braves offense that headlined the Braves’ collapse in the second half of the season.
A half-game out of first place in the N.L. East on July 29, the Braves have gone 18-30 since then to fall 15 back of Washington. Atlanta was eliminated from the wild-card chase when Pittsburgh beat Milwaukee 1-0 earlier Sunday.
Santana (14-10) said it’s hard on pitchers to keep games close when the offense struggles so badly to produce.
“If you are a starting pitcher, you are going to have that in your mind when you see things like this and we don’t score any runs,” Santana said. “It’s tough for us because when we’re playing this, if you give up two or three runs and you know it’s going to be a tough game.”
The Braves lost for the 14th time in 18 September games as deGrom struck out 10 in six innings to extend his impressive streak since June 21.
In his last start, de Grom (9-6) tied the single-game major league record by striking out his first eight batters.
Against Atlanta, the rookie right-hander struck out eight of the first 11 batters he faced.
deGrom allowed three hits, three walks and two runs — one earned — as he threw 63 of 100 pitches for strikes. In his last 15 starts, the rookie is 9-2 with a 1.90 ERA over 99 1/3 innings.
deGrom, who retired the first 12 hitters he faced, also used his bat, earning his second career RBI with a squeeze bunt that put New York ahead 6-2 in the sixth.
The light-hitting Braves dropped to 8-60 when scoring two runs or less and got swept for the seventh time this year in a series of three or more games.
Atlanta began the day ranked next-to-last in runs scored in the majors and was third in the NL in strikeouts.
The Mets went up in the first on Daniel Murphy‘s RBI groundout and 2-0 in the second on Ruben Tejada‘s sacrifice fly.
They led 5-0 in the fourth when Curtis Granderson scored on Christian Bethancourt‘s passed ball, Anthony Recker had a sacrifice fly and Tejada hit his fourth homer.
Santana gave up six hits and five runs with two walks and four strikeouts in five innings.
Atlanta made it 5-2 in the fifth. Justin Upton scored when Andrelton Simmons reached on shortstop Tejada’s fielding error and Emilio Bonifacio drew a walk.
But deGrom, who faced eight batters in the inning, struck out Phil Gosselin to leave the bases loaded.
It was a scene Santana, a 10-year veteran in his first season with Atlanta, has seen too many times this season. The Braves dropped to 1-12 when scoring two runs or less over their last 20 games.
GETTING EVEN
The Mets swept a three-game series at Turner Field for the first time since Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 2007. New York won 10 of 19 games this year for its first season series victory against the Braves since 2006.