Final Score: Mets 8, Braves 2

The Mets rolled last night again in Atlanta. Steven Matz pitched a very solid 6.1 innings with 8 strikeouts. He gave up an RBI double to Freddie Freeman early and an RBI single to Nick Markakis late. He did give up 9 hits, but he kept getting out of jams and only yielded those two runs.

The Mets got their scoring going right away. Curtis Granderson singled, Michael Conforto singled, and Lucas Duda got the one out sac fly. A little small ball. Hooray! Then Neil Walker walked and the awful Braves made an error on an Asdrubal Cabrera grounder to score Conforto.

In the 4th, Travis d’Arnaud got a leadoff single. Then with two outs the Braves walked Curtis Granderson and promptly gave up a 2 run double to David Wright. That made it 4-1. Asdrubal Cabrera added an RBI single in the 7th.

In the 9th, Asdrubal Cabrera and Neil Walker hit back to back home runs. It was the 4th time in 5 games that this Mets team accomplished back to back bombs. Juan Lagares added an RBI triple. That made it 8-2 and that was all she wrote.

Braves Stink: My only takeaway from this game (if it wasn’t abundantly clear already) is the Braves stink. We know this. My season preview said that. My series preview said it. It’s ok. They are rebuilding. They are actively stinking. The reason I bring it up again is because of what happened in Philly. In Philly we won 2 out of 3. Great. Excellent. Congratulations. When we dropped the finale of that series in extra innings in embarrassing fashion, I chastised the Mets. I said it was a terrible loss that a great team can’t have. A lot of fans said “Come on! Give them credit. At least they won the series.” And I will not do that. The Phillies and Braves are garbage. They are going to have some days where they beat us outright. On those days you tip your cap and move on. But when you have a chance to beat them and you blow it, you are really hurting your overall playoff chances. We must have a better record than Washington against our NL East opponents. Period. Every game matters. And of course we must beat Washington. But if we split our games against the Nats, it’s going to come down to that BS April series finale against Philly. Or perhaps even today’s sweep opportunity against Atlanta.

Today: Jacob deGrom is back. The Braves have a stud rookie on the mound though. Let’s send this kid back to the minors and sweep these mooks.