Inciarte raced a long way to the wall and timed his jump perfectly, catching the ball just above the orange line atop the fence.
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The question arises if Collins will perhaps start decreasing Bruce’s playing time moving forward, but the team does not have many options if Collins chooses that route.
It was Teixeira’s 407th homer, which tied Duke Snider for 54th place on baseball’s career list. He is the team’s most natural center fielder among the everyday options since Juan Lagares can not contribute offensively right now. Dellin Betances got three outs for his 12th save. The 26-year-old pitched well in his last outing, allowing one run on two hits over 4 2/3 innings of relief versus Washington on Friday.
Brad Miller put the Rays up 2-0 with a two-run triple in the third. The 2015 first-round draft pick might pitch in the Arizona Fall League.
“Hopefully, I have some other cool games I can tell him about, too”, Freeman said. “I always think I’m the best choice … but he’s the manager, and I respect his decision”.
Yankees: RHP Masahiro Tanaka (13-4), who is 6-0 in his last eight starts, takes the ball Wednesday night. He tied a career high with seven strikeouts.
For the second straight night, the Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets at Citi Field to further tighten the National League wild-card race. The cellar-dwelling Braves have split their first 18 encounters with the Mets, who had won 11 of 14 before dropping two straight to fall into a three-way tie with St. Louis and San Francisco for the two National League wild card spots. Freddie Freeman has hit 168 times with 93 runs, 31 homers and 83 RBI.
The Braves have the worst record in the NL, yet have a four-game winning streak.
As for the Mets, they’re 5-1 in their last six game threes of a series, and 2-7 in their last nine Wednesday games.
Mets nemesis Julio Teheran pitched seven more sparkling innings and left with a 5-1 lead.
Rene Rivera, who has supplanted Travis d’Arnaud as the starting catcher, extended the Mets’ lead to 3-0 by crushing a solo shot to left-center off Weber in the fifth.
Bartolo Colon and Jeurys Familia failed to protect a 3-0 lead for the Mets. He is 7-3 with a 2.36 ERA in 15 career games (14 starts) versus the Mets.
Teheran struck out just one, but a couple of fastballs up and a couple more inside early in the game seemed to serve their goal and keep the Mets off the plate.
Inciarte wasn’t done with his exciting game yet – in the bottom of the ninth, Jim Johnson got into a bit of hot water, allowing a leadoff single and then issuing a one-out walk. He struck out Yoenis Cespedes with a runner on first to end it.
Curtis Granderson hit an RBI double in the eighth, when T.J. Rivera followed with a sacrifice fly and Eric Campbell delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in his first at-bat since May 30. With almost two weeks left in the season, the two-time All-Star has hit a career-high 31 home runs and is batting.302 with 83 RBIs.
Rookie Robert Gsellman took a scoreless effort into the sixth.
After Atlanta loaded the bases with one out, Kemp lofted a catchable fly to right-center, but Granderson and Jay Bruce both backed off at the last moment and the ball fell for an RBI single.
Seeking a five-out save from his All-Star closer, Mets manager Terry Collins turned to Familia with two runners on.
The Mets suffered consecutive losses for the first time since September 1-2, but don’t blame the young starting pitching that is filling in for injured standouts.
Braves: RHP Mike Foltynewicz threw about 25 fastballs in a bullpen session and said he felt normal.
Mets: LHP Steven Matz (shoulder tightness) is to throw a bullpen Wednesday and could rejoin the rotation later this week.
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Wilmer Flores received a second cortisone injection in his bothersome right wrist to help alleviate discomfort caused by a bone bruise.
