Braves Bats Can’t Deliver, Fall to Mets 3-2

(Source: Yardbarker.com)

The Braves couldn’t deliver the big hit Monday night and dropped back into last place in the NL East losing to the Mets 3-2. For the night the Braves were 1-7 with runners in scoring position and grounded into 3 rally killing double plays. Eric Hinske continued his hot streak with his second homer in as many nights while banging out three more hits. Nate McLouth is quietly raising his average collecting two more hits tonight, however he did strike out to end the ball game with the tying run on second base. Reigning NL Player of the Week Martin Prado went 2-3 with walk.

The Braves wasted a pretty good pitching performance from Derek Lowe. Lowe pitched 7 innings of 4 hit baseball allowing all of the Mets 3 runs. He struck out 7 and walked 3. The Mets got an even better performance from Mike Pelfrey who worked out of trouble constantly as the Braves couldn’t deliver the big hit. Pelfrey pitched 7.2 innings allowed 7 hits and only 2 runs. The big blow for the Mets was the Rod Barajas double in the second inning that plated Chris Carter and Ike Davis giving the Mets a 2-0 lead. The Braves answered right back with the Hinske home run but Jose Reyes scored on a Carter ground out one inning later. The Braves got their last run on a Chipper Jones sacrifice fly in the 6th and weren’t able to push anything else across.

Former Braves phenom Jeff Francouer didn’t get the start in this one and came in late and went 0-1. His average for the season stands at .212

Things won’t get any easier today as they will conclude this short two game set with Mets Ace Johan Santana (3-2, 3.88) facing off against Kris Medlen (1-1, 2.35). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 ET