Atlanta Braves take advantage of Met meltdown in eighth inning

The Atlanta Braves were trailing the New York Mets 3-1 in the heading into the eighth inning and after watching Zack Wheeler shut down the offense, it was starting to look like an opening series loss.

But, the Braves were able to capitalize on three New York errors in the bottom of the eighth to rally for four runs and come back for the 5-3 victory. Jeurys Familia, Juan Lagares and Eric Campbell each had defensive mishaps in the bottom of the inning and without each of those, it would have been extremely unlikely for the Braves to come away with the win.

Alex Wood struggled a bit in the beginning of the game for the Braves, but settled in after giving up runs in each of the first three innings. He would go on to toss six innings, allow seven hits and three runs, while striking out seven batters and walking one. While many people started to freak out during the beginning of the game, it was a good call from Fredi Gonzalez to leave him in and let him get into a groove.

B.J. Upton had a fantastic game out of the leadoff spot, going 2-4 with a walk and getting the Braves started offensively in the fourth inning. He singled to left to start the inning, was moved to third on an Andrelton Simmons single and eventually scored on a sac fly from Freddie Freeman. If the leadoff spot is what causes Upton to get out of his Brave-long funk, then I’m all for keeping him there. From a skill set standpoint, he’s the best player suited for the job, but he’ll have to start taking walks and getting on base more. It’s not nearly enough to be a leadoff hitter at this point.

In any case, it was a good comeback victory for the Braves and while they haven’t played the league’s elite lately, and should have lost tonight, they are taking games when they should and capitalizing when they can. It’s good to see.

Tomorrow is Mike Minor vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka at 7:10 pm ET.

Stay Tuned.