Conforto sparks Mets past Braves
ATLANTA — Michael Conforto homered and drove in three runs, and the New York Mets scored five times in the fourth inning off Julio Teheran before holding on to beat the Atlanta Braves 7-5 on Monday night.
On the day the Mets placed ace Noah Syndergaard on the 10-day disabled list with a partial tear of his right lat muscle, Robert Gsellman (1-2) almost blew an early 6-1 lead. Gsellman allowed five runs in fiveplus innings.
Five Mets relievers combined for four scoreless innings. Jeurys Familia pitched the ninth for his second save of the season.
Conforto led off the game with his seventh homer and added a two-run single in New York’s five-run fourth inning off Teheran (2-2). With New York’s lead down to 6-5, Jose Reyes added a homer off Ian Krol in the eighth.
Atlanta’s Ender Inciarte hit his fifth homer to lead off the bottom of the first.
The win provided a needed lift for the Mets, who moved out of last place in the National League East, a halfgame ahead of Atlanta.
Syndergaard’s injury, suffered in the second inning of Sunday’s 23-5 loss to Washington, came as the team already was missing two injured hitters from the middle of its lineup.
Yoenis Cespedes was placed on the disabled list Friday with a strained left hamstring. First baseman Lucas Duda could have been eligible to return from a hyperextended left elbow, but he had a setback over the weekend while on his minor league rehab assignment.
The Mets’ five runs in the fourth matched their scoring total in their last seven games against the Braves’ ace.
Before the game, Mets manager Terry Collins asked for players to “pick up the slack,” and some of the team’s struggling hitters came through in the big inning.
Neil Walker, hitting .193, had a run-scoring single. Curtis Granderson, hitting .126, walked to load the bases. T.J. Rivera, hitting .192 as the fill-in for Duda, also had a run-scoring single up the middle. Conforto added a two-run single to right field.
The Mets recalled Paul Sewald from Triple-A Las Vegas to fill Syndergaard’s roster spot. Sewald gives the bullpen a fresh arm, and the team will make another move to fill Syndergaard’s spot in the rotation by Friday. Collins said left-hander Sean Gilmartin and right-hander Rafael Montero are the top candidates to join the rotation.
Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said Duda has been “slowed down slightly” for a couple days before resuming his minor league rehab. Alderson said Duda “felt a little discomfort from the exertion” and that setback changed plans for Duda to come off the 10-day DL on Monday.
The Braves’ Mauricio Cabrera, on the 10-day DL with a right elbow strain, is scheduled to pitch one inning for Triple-A Gwinnett tonight. The plan is for Cabrera to pitch two innings in his next rehab appearance.
Matt Harvey will look for his second pitching win over the Braves this season tonight. Harvey (2-1) beat Atlanta on April 6 at Citi Field, allowing two runs on three hits in 6 2/3 innings. Fellow right-hander R.A. Dickey of the Braves, who won the 2012 NL Cy Young Award with the Mets, will face his former team for only the second time. He beat New York on April 27, when he allowed three runs, two earned, in a 7-5 win.