6 IN THE 1ST OF 5
Buck turns to closer in 8th, sticks with him in 9th as Mets take opener of huge series with Braves 6 4
The Mets kicked off their five-game series against their division rival Atlanta Braves with a 6-4 win, powered by the long ball, a solid outing from Carlos Carrasco and an electric six-out save from Edwin Diaz.
For Diaz, it was the first six-out save of his career.
For manager Buck Showalter, it was a gutsy move considering these teams play for more games over the next three days, and it’s unlikely that Diaz will be available tonight.
“They asked me,” Diaz said of the decision to keep him in the game after he retired the side in order in the eighth. “I said, ‘I feel great. I’m going out again.
I wanna get the win.’”
The win gave the Mets a 4.5 game cushion at the top of the NL East and put them 29 games over .500. It also raised their record against the Braves this season to 5-3 ahead of Taijuan Walker’s start on Friday. The game was the Mets’ first of an 11-game home stand.
After a 1-2-3 first, Pete Alonso drove in the first run of the night on a line drive single into left that brought Starling Marte around from second.
After another perfect inning from Carrasco, new Met Tyler Naquin homered on a 2-0 meatball from Kyle Wright that landed in the bullpen in right-center.
Carrasco ended the third with his fifth strike out. In the bottom half of the inning, after Francisco Lindor drew a twoout walk, Alonso lasered a 2-run homer, his 29th of the year, 412 feet into left-center. Alonso ticked up to 91 RBI on the year after he touched home plate.
Daniel Vogelbach followed Alonso with his first homer as a Met at Citi Field, a screaming no-doubter into right. It was his second homer in as many days.
Carrasco ran into some trouble in the fifth inning and saw his scoreless streak end at 22 innings. Braves rookie Michael Harris II singled in a run and scored on Ronald Acuna’s two-run shot that cut the Mets’ lead to 5-3.
Braves starter Kyle Wright eventually settled down, but was hurt by the longball again after Naquin’s second homer of the game in the sixth — an opposite field pop that kept carrying until it landed several feet into the party deck in left field.
It was the Mets’ fourth homer of the night.
Carrasco left after six with six strikeouts.
Adam Ottavino came in for the seventh and allowed a second RBI single to Harris before striking out Acuna to end the threat.
Then the real fun began.
Diaz, pitching for the first time since last Friday, came in in the eighth to face the heart of the Braves’ lineup: Dansby Swanson, Matt Olson and Austin Riley.
Swanson swung at the first pitch and grounded out to Lindor whose throw beat the speedy shortstop by half a step. Diaz then sat down Olson on a 2-2 pitch after the first baseman’s checked-swing. He then blew away Riley, who went down swinging, too.
The Mets were unable to add any insurance runs before sending Diaz back to the mound in the ninth for a six-out save opportunity.
The flame-thrower allowed a single to Eddie Rosario, who got to second on a wild pitch.
But Diaz took care of business, getting Travis d’Arnaud to fly out to right before striking out Marcel Ozuna.
Diaz then recorded the final out at first himself after Orlando Arcia checked his swing on a 3-0 pitch and weakly dribbled the ball toward first.
Diaz picked the ball up and ran to the bag for the unassisted out.