Atlanta Braves: Travis d’Arnaud is Sub-Zero, not a flawless victory

The Atlanta Braves overcame another poor pitching performance with their bats. We take a look at areas in need of improvement after their thrilling 11-10 win over the Metropolitans.

The Atlanta Braves welcomed the Mets to Truist field on Friday night for a fun offensive output. Travis d’Arnaud led the charge against the team that released him just last season.

Atlanta Braves: Travis d’Arnaud is Sub-Zero

The offense is rolling. Travis d’Arnaud has already proved to be a great addition after returning from his bout with COVID-19. He picked up where he left off last year when he hit 16 homers and drove in 67 runs while helping lead the Rays to the ALDS.

He quickly became a fan favorite in Tampa and has already endeared himself to Atlanta fans by almost single-handedly destroying the team that released him last season.

Last night, he gave the Braves an early 2-0 lead with a frozen rope to centerfield in the first inning, scoring Marcell Ozuna from third.

The Mets got a two-run homer from J.D. Davis that barely scraped the wall and gave the Mets a 3-2 lead. The Mets poured it on in the fifth, showing no mercy to Newcomb or Jhoulys Chacin.

Down 8-2 in the bottom of the fifth, the Braves went back to work. d’Arnaud stepped in with a chance to do more damage and damage he did.

TDA took a 1-2 fastball to right field to score Freddie Freeman and make it a four-run game. The Mets got their two runs back in the top of this sixth. The Braves were again down by five runs their next turn up.

Dansby continued his scorching hot start to the season with a double to score Ender Inciarte. For the record, we’ve discussed how injuries plagued Inciarte last season and the metrics showed slower numbers. You didn’t need metrics to measure the blazing speed he showed on Dansby’s dandy double.

10-6 Mets heading into the seventh.

Prospect Tyler Matzek came in to get the final out of the sixth inning and he would retire Cespedes, Cano, and Ramos in order in the seventh. This was a clutch performance to keep the Braves in this game.

The eighth inning gave Grant Dayton the opportunity to hold the fort down. he allowed a leadoff single to Andres Gimenez but got the next three in order.

Adeiny Hechavarria, who was giving Ozzie Albies a day off, continued his mastery of the wooden bat while wearing a Braves uniform as he led off with a line-drive single to left. Inciarte followed up by working a walk against Dellin Betances.

Acuna came up in a big spot here and registered his league-leading 17th strikeout. Lucky for the Braves, Dansby Swanson can do no wrong right now as he fired a friggin’ laser beam (Mr. Bigglesworth) to right field, scoring Adeiny from second.

Once again, in the bottom of the 8th, Travis d’Arnaud showed up clutch like when the party is waning until your buddy shows up with a new case of Keystones!

d’Arnaud – wearing his awesome mask and looking like a socially responsible adult who is also a highly-skilled warrior with the ability to shoot ice cannons out of his palms when engaged in hand-to-hand combat – stepped in with the bases loaded and a chance to give the good guys the lead.

Not only did he look like Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat, but he also showed the Mets that he now had ice running through his veins as a majestic voice from the sky echoed down as Seth Lugo made his pitch.

“FINISH HIM!” it rang out through the eerily empty stadium.

d’Arnaud launched a double into right-center and gave the Braves an 11-10 lead that they would not relinquish.

The catcher even kicked in a stolen base to go with his three hits and five RBIs.

Now, the Braves have serious issues that I want to address. The offense can’t score 11 runs every game… or can they? So, I don’t mean to be negative, but…

If you want to think optimistically, then view these as areas in need of improvement, or areas that will soon improve.