Peterson fans 10, Mets stop Braves
NEW YORK — Rookie David Peterson struck out NL batting leader Freddie Freeman three times and fanned a career- high 10 in six sharp innings as the New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves 7- 2 on Saturday night. Atlanta saw its NL East lead over second- place Miami drop to 2 1⁄ games. 2 The Braves have eight games remaining, the Marlins nine. The Mets moved to within 1 1⁄ games of the NL’s 2 last playoff spot with eight games left. A night after New York’s 15- 2 loss ended with infielder Todd Frazier pitching a 1- 2- 3 ninth, Peterson ( 5- 2) fanned Freeman in the first, third and fifth innings. Peterson allowed one run and three hits and threw a career- high 102 pitches. The left- hander also matched his longest outing and went six innings for the second time against Atlanta. Adam Duvall homered in the Atlanta sixth. Peterson got Freeman to foul tip a fastball into catcher Robinson Chirinos’ glove after he picked off Ronald Acuna Jr. in the first. In the third with Acuna on first, Peterson fanned Freeman on a slider and in the fifth with Austin Riley on second, he got the star first baseman on another slider. Freeman struck four times for the second time this season. He had four strikeouts July 28 at Tampa Bay. Freeman, who began the game batting .359, hit an inning- ending double play in the seventh with the bases loaded against Justin Wilson. Freeman struck out in the ninth to end it. Freeman’s 12- game hitting streak ended and his batting average dropped to .349. He leads Washington’s Juan Soto by 11 points in the batting race. The MVP candidate also saw his on- base streak ended at 33 games, the longest in the majors this season. Robinson Cano had three hits, including a two- run double off rookie Ian Anderson ( 3- 1) after the Mets opened the game with three straight walks. He added a solo homer in the eighth after Dominic Smith opened the inning with a homer off Shane Greene, who allowed multiple runs for the first time in 31 appearances. Brandon Nimmo had a two- run single and Chirinos added an RBI single for the Mets.