Braves’ streak ends with shutout loss
NEW YORK — Kevin Gausman was outpitched in his Atlanta Braves debut by a blossoming Zack Wheeler as the New York Mets won 3-0 Saturday night to end the visitors’ winning streak at five games.
Mets rookie second baseman Jeff McNeil went 4-for-4, and Austin Jackson had an RBI infield single as the Mets ended their losing streak at four games. They improved to 4-11 against Atlanta this year and won for only the 10th time in their past 34 home games.
Pitching against his hometown team, Wheeler (6-6) matched a season high with nine strikeouts in seven innings of three-hit ball and extended his shutout streak to 17 innings.
The 28-year-old right-hander has won four consecutive starts for the first time in his career — immediately after going 13 outings in a row without a win, marking the longest such streak by a Mets starter in 20 years.
Bobby Wahl and Robert Gsellman finished the five-hitter, with Gsellman getting four fast outs (all on grounders to McNeil) for his sixth save.
After taking early infield work Saturday afternoon before batting practice, New York put together a rare game of first-rate defense to delight a crowd of 36,946 that showed up eager to receive bobbleheads of Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard as Thor.
Wheeler’s long-awaited emergence after missing the 2015 and 2016 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery was one reason the struggling Mets held onto him at the non-waiver trade deadline. They hope he’ll be a big part of a major turnaround next season, and Wheeler was certainly on his game in his first outing since staying put Tuesday, firing 99 mph heat as he fanned the first three batters he faced for the first time in his career.
Atlanta, on the other hand, made an aggressive move to acquire Gausman (5-9) from the Baltimore Orioles in an effort to bolster its rotation for a tight race atop the NL East. The righthander, drafted fourth overall out of LSU in 2012, was charged with three runs and six hits over five-plus innings during his first professional start outside the Baltimore organization.
McNeil’s double set up Amed Rosario’s run-scoring grounder in the second before Gausman gave up three straight singles to start the sixth and was pulled.