Bats Wake Up in Mets' Win Over Atlanta
McCann's blast ties things up, Lindor puts Mets ahead, bullpen shuts it down
Back on May 19, Braves right-hander Charlie Morton held the Mets to one run on two hits over six innings with eight strikeouts and a walk in a 5-4 win over New York.
A week ago at Citi Field, Morton stifled the Mets for seven scoreless, one-hit innings, holding them absolutely captive to his ageless curveball.
On Tuesday in Atlanta, the Mets got another shot at the 37-year-old New Jersey product (2.72 ERA over his previous eight starts) and he shoved them further into the run-deficient abyss they’ve been mired in as of late through most of the night.
Since putting up seven runs against Atlanta last week, this offense had scored just 13 runs over their previous five games. And that includes their four-run “outburst” on Monday in DC.
Both pendulums swung back in the Mets’ direction on Tuesday.
After managing just three hits versus Morton over the first six innings, the Mets finally broke through against the crafty veteran in the seventh and carried that momentum all the way home.
Atlanta got another look at Mets right-hander Tylor Megill, too. A very good look, in fact. Let’s jump in.
The 25-year-old made his second major league start — both against Atlanta — and looked extremely sharp early on, averaging 95 MPH with his four-seamer (seven called strikes!) and mixing in his slider and changeup perfectly.
He was goose-egging the Braves through 4.2 innings before Ozzie Albies’ three-run homer blew up the gem, but the progress Megill made was more than evident.
The former eighth-round pick (2014) lived on the corners all night, drawing hitters in with the heater and dropping his secondary stuff on each side of the plate with regularity.
A place for everything and everything in its place. And it was all working out beautifully until it wasn’t.
The 25-year-old right-hander struck out Ronald Acuna Jr. on an inside changeup that froze the young wunderkind and punched out Freddie Freeman and Ozzie Albies on sliders in a scoreless first.
Third-base umpire Chris Guccione’s safe call on Albies’ 0-2 check swing on a high fastball was all that came between Megill and an immaculate inning (nine pitches, nine strikes, three outs). Moderately deflating but wholly encouraging.
Speaking of encouraging, Megill stranded two baserunners in the second, leaving men on the corners courtesy of a terrific diving catch in shallow left-field via Dominic Smith.
Despite the -5 OAA he’s racked up in left field this season, Smith’s played terrifically, especially considering he hadn’t played the outfield since high school before successfully lobbying the Mets to allow him to explore this avenue in 2019.
Not having the designated hitter in place for 2021 after the roster was constructed as such was an uncontrollable setback. Smith’s been an absolute game-changer in its wake and it’s made this roster deeper. Dom Smith: Ultimate Team Player, as always.
Michael Conforto finally notched the Mets’ first hit off Morton in the top of the fourth, a one-out single into centerfield. He was left on first (Alonso fly out, Smith strikeout), but, hey, progress.
Megill struck out two more in the fourth (seven up to that point), stranding Abraham Almonte (two-out base hit) and, boom, another four scoreless for the upstart righty. We love to see that.
Things unraveled a bit for Megill in the fifth. Immediately following his eighth strikeout of the night, Acuna and Freeman both singled with two outs, and Albies tattooed Megill’s first-pitch changeup into the bullpen in right-center, giving Atlanta a 3-0 lead.
A sour end to an overwhelmingly positive night for the rookie right-hander (5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 8 K, 2 BB). Onward.
McNeil singled to lead off the sixth against Morton but Lindor and Conforto struck out swinging at a couple of those infamous curveballs and Pete popped out on another. Just belittling. Woof.
Drew Smith navigated around trouble in the sixth, leaving two Bravos on the basepaths and the Mets finally got to Morton in the top of the seventh.
Dom led off the inning with a single, Kevin Pillar drew a walk behind him, and James McCann put a brand new paint job on things with a huge game-tying three-run homer to left-center. And they weren’t done there.
Jose Peraza smoked a one-out ground-rule double later in the frame and Lindor brought him home with a two-out single to give the Mets their first lead since walking off against the Phillies on Saturday. Does that even count as a lead? Anyway.
Trevor May took the ball in the seventh and worked perfectly, striking out Acuna and inducing to fly outs from Freeman and Albies to keep the 4-3 lead intact.
Since June 16, the 31-year-old right-hander hasn’t allowed an earned run with 10 strikeouts and a walk over seven innings of work (seven appearances).
Over this span, May hadn’t gone more than three days off between outings before Tuesday (four days).
As noted here during his funk earlier in the year, the former Twinkie needs consistent work to stay sharp. As we all do. It appears he’s back in the groove.
If all of the legs of the Mets’ bullpen are standing sturdily, this is a formidable, extremely valuable force. May’s inclusion in that equation only reinforces that bottom line.
Seth Lugo — perpetually in the groove with a 2.19 ERA since making his season debut earlier this month — put forth a clean eighth, Edwin Diaz tossed a shutdown ninth for his 17th save of the year, and the Mets got back on the good foot with a rousing win.
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