Hard-luck deGrom and the Mets fall to Braves
New York — Ozzie Albies hit a tiebreaking double off Jacob deGrom, Anibal Sanchez pitched six effective innings and the Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets 2-1 Friday night for their fifth straight win.
Albies gave the Braves the lead in the fifth when he doubled to left field corner as Ronald Acuna Jr. easily scored from second after getting a two-out double.
Johan Camargo hit his 13th homer off the facing of the second deck in right field to put Atlanta up 1-0 in the second, a day after hitting a two-run double Thursday off Jason Vargas.
Mixing in an effective cutter with his splitter, Sanchez (6-3) allowed one run and two hits. He struck out a season-high nine, including Michael Conforto and Todd Frazier to end the sixth after issuing a one-out walk to Jose Bautista.
Three pitchers followed with hitless relief as Atlanta beat the Mets for the 11th time in 14 meetings. Dan Winkler allowed a leadoff walk to Austin Jackson in the seventh but got Rosario on a double play. Jesse Biddle was aided by right fielder Nick Markakis' second diving catch of the game and pitched a perfect eighth.
A.J. Minter worked around a twoout error by Camargo at third in the ninth to remain perfect in eight save chances.
The Braves are 5-0 in games they have faced deGrom, though they have scored just four runs off him.
DeGrom (5-7) allowed two runs and six hits in eight inning innings while striking out nine. He retired the final 12 hitters after Albies doubled, and also drove in New York's run with an RBI single in the third that scored Amed Rosario.
The right-hander also recorded his 14th straight quality start, the longest single-season streak since Johan Santana also had 14 straight for the Mets in 2008. He also allowed three runs or fewer for the 19th straight start, the second-longest single-season streak in team history.
The Mets have scored 54 runs with deGrom on the mound in his 22 starts this season, including 28 in his last 16 starts dating back to May 2. DeGrom is 2-7 in that stretch.
New York dropped a season-high 19 games under .500 at 44-63. The Mets have lost 42 of their last 61 games overall and 24 of their last 33 home games.
The Mets matched a season-low by getting held to two hits for the fourth time.