“I feel good against them”, Wisler said.
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Freddie Freeman lined out to center field with the bases loaded to end the third inning.
RHP Bartolo Colon will look to join the 15-win club for the third straight season when he takes the mound on Wednesday night in the finale of a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field.
“I said, turn the damn music on and let’s get ready for tomorrow, try to keep them as positive as they can”, Collins said before the Mets beat the Braves, 4-0, Monday night to quell any lingering whispers of a collapse.
Jonathon Niese got back on track and so did the New York Mets. The Mets made at least one mishap in all four of the innings in which Atlanta scored, but they were charged with only two errors. But the blend of 90 miles per hour fastballs and off-speed offerings was more than enough Monday, when Niese walked two, struck out two and induced 13 ground ball outs – including eight in a row to start the game.
The Mets, now 85-66, nonetheless have a 6½-game lead over the Washington Nationals for first place in the National League East. The magic number is down to six thanks to the Nats’ loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday.
However, Wisler retired 20 of the final 25 batters he faced and received some rare support in the fifth inning from the power-challenged Braves. He is hitting.285 with eight homers and 23 RBI since being recalled from Double-A Binghamton on July 24. Wisler moved Bourn to second with a sacrifice bunt.
New York jumped out to a 1-0 lead as David Wright smacked an opposite field solo home run to right field.
All the runs in the Braves’ four-run fifth inning came were provided by Jace Peterson’s leadoff homer and Hector Olivera’s two-run homer, which opened a 4-1 lead. We had some key double plays that were huge and kind of saved the day for me a little bit. “Unfortunately with two guys on base, you can’t do that”.
The Mets had chances to put a dent in their deficit, but couldn’t capitalize. “It’s hard to win when you don’t score any runs”, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
Sean Gilmartin and Hansel Robles had given the Mets three scoreless innings, but in the ninth Tyler Clippard served up a 1-2 changeup that Adonis Garcia roped for a two-RBI pinch-hit double to essentially end the game.
It was another disappointing defeat during this homestand.
The New York Mets need a win after losing five of their last seven games.
Given the way his team was hitting on the road, Collins is “shocked” by how much the Mets have struggled at the plate.
“All of a sudden, we’ve hit a wall”, he said. And manager Terry Collins believes his ballclub looks tight. X-rays were negative and he is day to day, the Braves said.
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“I don’t sense that anybody’s tight in here or feeling the pressure”, Wright said. The Mets squandered a 7 1/2-game lead with 17 to go in 2007 before blowing an advantage of 3 1/2 a year later, missing the playoffs both times. But I don’t sense it carrying over to the field. Obviously, this goes against the nature of the fanbase, which remembers the devastating collapses late in the 2007 and 2008 seasons, but the Mets are still far from the point where panic should be setting in. “We need to get some momentum back on our side”.
