Braves beat deGrom and Mets, tie for NL East lead
ATLANTA — Austin Riley doesn’t want to put too much emphasis on winning the first game of a crucial three-game series with the New York Mets.
That being said, he sure is glad the Atlanta Braves took the opener.
“To get the first one is huge and just try to build as much momentum off it as possible,” Riley said. “To come out fighting and top to bottom did a great job. Arms did great. Just a solid win.”
Riley and Matt Olson hit back-to-back homers off Jacob deGrom in the second inning and Dansby Swanson later connected off the Mets ace as the Braves beat New York 5-2 Friday night to move into a tie for the NL East lead.
The defending World Series champion Braves soaked in the raucous atmosphere at sold-out Truist Park as they seek to keep the Mets from winning one game in the three-game series and earn the tiebreaker between the two teams.
Atlanta, going for its fifth straight NL East title, has won eight of the 17 games in the season series.
Both teams are 98-59 with five games to go in the regular season.
Riley and Olson became the first players to hit back-to-back homers off deGrom (5-4) since Freddie Freeman and Josh Donaldson did it for the Braves on June 18, 2019. That game was also the last time deGrom allowed two homers in the same inning.
At that point, deGrom had given up 13 earned runs and five homers in 17 innings over his last four starts. He entered 0-2 with a 6.60 ERA in his previous three starts. The righty also is dealing with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand, but he refused to use that as an excuse.
“I had a little bit in the last start and then it popped and skin underneath right now kind of peeled off, so I started getting pretty aggravated,” deGrom said. “We were debating whether or not to keep going with it, so we decided it was enough. We don’t want it to become a bigger issue than it is.”
Swanson homered off deGrom after he had retired seven in a row to make it 3-1. Swanson’s 23rd long ball went 441 feet into the left-field seats, touching off a frenzy from the crowd. Eddie Rosario’s sacrifice fly and Orlando Arcia’s RBI double off Tylor Megill in the seventh padded the lead to 5-1.
Max Fried (14-7) allowed consecutive singles to begin the second before Francisco
Alvarez grounded into a double play in his first major league at-bat. The Mets led 1-0 on Luis Guillorme’s single as Rosario had the ball bounce off his glove in left field in an attempt to make a running catch.
Braves reliever Collin McHugh faced the minimum in the sixth, Raisel Iglesias faced four batters in the seventh and A.J. Minter gave up Tomas Nido’s third homer to make it 5-2 in the eighth.
Closer Kenley Jansen hit a batter, gave up a single and issued a walk that loaded the bases one out in the ninth, but struck out the last two batters for his NL-high 38th save in 45 chances.
“We had some grind there and had an opportunity at the end,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “We just couldn’t get another — they have a good pitching staff. So do we.”
Riley’s 38th homer in the bottom of the second made it 1all, the ball sailing 422 feet to center field. Olson’s 31st homer traveled 430 feet to right-center over the Braves’ bullpen.
“When another team scores, you want to be able to respond quickly and to be able to do it in that quick of an instant was huge and for it to be back-toback homers like that was definitely a tone-setter for us as a team,” Swanson said. “It provided a little energy and spark and got the crowd involved. When you do that, good things are bound to happen.”