Atlanta Braves Drop Game to Mets 7-1

After their successful Canadian adventure, the Atlanta Braves traveled back across the border to begin a three game road series against the New York Mets. The pitching match-up in game one pitted Mets lefthander Jon Niese against the recently acquired Trevor Cahill.

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Cahill was looking to bounce back from his first start in which he lasted only 2 and 1/3 innings, allowing four runs. Early he was staying on top of his sinking fastball, inducing five consecutive groundouts before Eric Campbell’s groundball single gave the Mets their first hit.

After four scoreless innings Cahill finally ran into trouble during the bottom of the 5^th. A walk followed by back to back singles started the inning, loading the bases for Jon Niese. After three balls in a row to begin the at-bat, Niese hit a tailor made double-play ball to second base, but Phil Gosselin booted it. The error would give the Mets a 1-0 lead.

Curtis Granderson followed that up with a two run single of his own, stretching the New York lead to 3-0. The hit train kept rolling as Juan Lagares singled home another run. After the Lagares single Cahill would give way to recently promoted relief pitcher Ian Thomas. Cahill lasted only 4 innings, allowed 3 earned runs on 5 hits and 1 walk. After the inning the Mets would hold a 4-0 lead.

When Cahill keeps his sinker down in the strike zone he can be a very effective pitcher. When he loses command games can get away from him quickly, as evidenced by the four run 5^th inning that ended his day early. After two starts his ERA sits at 9.95. Not great, Bob.

The Mets would tack on an insurance run in the bottom of the 6^th on a Granderson single that was just out of reach of a leaping Gosselin. Braves Twitter then began clamoring for Jace Peterson to be inserted into the game as if he were a backup goaltender in a hockey game where the starter had just given up three goals in the first period. Remember when Atlanta had an NHL team? That was a thing. Weird.

The Braves finally got on the board when Cameron Maybin hit a shot to leftfield that just barely edged its way above the orange barrier that separates the outfield wall from the railing beyond the field of play. The solo homerun was Maybin’s third of the season and cut the Mets lead to 5-1.

Despite the solo homer, Jon Niese confounded the Braves for most of the evening. Niese pitched 6 and 2/3 innings allowing 1 run with 5 strikeouts. His high walk total (4 walks) is the only thing that kept him from pitching deeper into the game.

The Braves struggled to get hits with runners in scoring position, as they did the last time Cahill started. They ended the night 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, leaving runners on base in the 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th innings.

Atlanta only recorded five hits as a team, with no players recording multiple hits. Maybin’s homerun was the only extra base hit, Nick Markakis, Chris Johnson, Gosselin, and Andrelton Simmons had one single apiece.

Cahill certainly did not pitch well, but who knows how the game would have been different if Gosselin had successfully turned that 5th inning double-play ball. Perhaps Cahill gets out of the inning allowing only a single run and regains the form he had shown in the previous four innings. Baseball is tricky like that. Sometimes the game can change on one groundball. Then again, if the bats were as cold as they continued to be it would have been difficult to win no matter how Cahill pitched.

New York would tack on two more runs in the bottom of the 8^th, giving them a 7-1 victory. The loss moves the Braves to 8-5 on the season, while the Mets move to an NL best 11-3. The two teams will continue their three game series tomorrow night with Eric Stults facing off against Dillon Gee.

Next: Minor League Monday

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