Braves blank Mets for sweep

NEW YORK — After a three-game wipeout of the New York Mets, the Atlanta Braves were flying — and not just because they were heading home.

The first-place Braves — that’s right, the NL East-leading Braves — just might be starting to convince a jaded fan base to believe again.

Julio Teheran took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning , 20-yearold Ronald Acuna Jr. hit his second big league home run and a 11-0 rout Thursday completed a 7-3 trip that vaulted the young Braves atop their division.

Players and manager Brian Snitker were looking ahead to a weekend series against San Francisco at SunTrust Park, where just two

Atlanta pitcher Julio Teheran delivers against the New York Mets during the first inning of Thursday’s game in New York. of the first 12 home games sold out this season.

“I think they’re going to be pumped. I think they’ll be rockin’ tomorrow night,” Snitker said. “After the road trip we had, the style, the way these guys are playing — I mean, they’re leaving it out there every night.”

Kurt Suzuki , Acuna and Nick Markakis homered as the Braves built a 6-0 lead by the fifth inning Julie Jacobson / AP

against Jason Vargas (0-2), and 21-year-old Ozzie Albies went deep off an equally shaky Matt Harvey in a five-run seventh.

Atlanta has won five in a row and opened a 1½-game division lead, the latest in a season the Braves have been in first place since July 20, 2014.

“If the fan base wasn’t already excited, I don’t know what will,” said Freddie Freeman, the only Atlanta player left from the group that walked off the field in first place against the Phillies that afternoon.