Zach Wheeler gave the Mets his best outing of the season, and the bats were red hot once again as the Mets toppled the Braves 6-2 on Friday, extending their win streak to three games, as the Amazin's maintain a half game lead over the Phillies for first place at 9-4. However, the most impressive and important numbers is this: the Mets are 8-3 in the division - the best among the competition in the NL East.
On Friday manager Mickey Callaway shook up the line-up just a little bit, moving Jeff McNeil into the lead-off spot and dropping Brandon Nimmo down in the order, and the change worked perfectly.
On a night where he went 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs score, Nimmo ripped a a two-run homer to straight-away center field in the top of the second inning to open up the scoring for New York.
Two innings later, it was McNeil's turn to shine. The third baseman ripped a double to right, driving in both Keon Broxton and Nimmo to push the Mets lead up to 4-1.
Two batters later, slumping slugger Robinson Cano drove in McNeil with a double of his own to augment the Mets lead to 5-1. Michael Conforto put the finishing touch with his fifth double of the season, driving in Cano to make it 6-1.
All the runs were to the good of starter Zach Wheeler, who delivered his most impressive outing of the season. Wheeler held the Braves to just two runs on six hits over six innings, while recording eight strikeouts.
Things didn't look good for Wheeler in the bottom of the first when he loaded the bases on a single by Josh Donaldson and a pair of walks issued to Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna. Still he found a way out of it. Wheeler jammed Nick Markakis on a fly ball to left that drove in Atlanta's first run, and struck out Dansby Swanson swinging.
From there Wheeler worked his way in and out of trouble, never giving in to Atlanta's difficult lineup. After struggling through his first two starts of the year, Wheeler lowered his ERA to 7.47. For a guy expected to be the linchpin in the Mets rotation, New York can only hope that he can use the start as a jumping board for better things to come.
Speaking of needing a good night, the Mets bullpen finally, FINALLY got through a game without giving up a run. Justin Wilson pitched a scoreless seventh inning, and Seth Lugo had his best outing of the year out of the pen, giving the Mets two scoreless to end it.
The Mets and Braves meet up on Saturday night with Jason Vargas on the hill for the Amazin's.
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