Braves Beat Mets in Extras, 5-3

The Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets in extra innings Saturday afternoon 5-3. In what started out as a pitchers’ duel between Atlanta’s Shelby Miller and New York’s Jacob deGrom, neither All-Star caliber starter factored into today’s decision. Jason Grilli gets the win and of all people, starting pitcher Williams Perez gets his first big league save.

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Atlanta scored first in the top of the first inning when Freddie Freeman unloaded a mammoth solo homer to deep, deep right center for his 12th long ball of the season. New York then put up their three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, chasing Shelby Miller after 6.1 solid innings for the Braves. Atlanta somehow tied the game up in the top of the ninth with RBI singles from Cameron Maybin and Freddie Freeman to send it into extra innings. Maybin delivered the go-ahead two-RBI single in the top of eleventh to lead the Braves to victory.

This game was a roller coaster of emotions. For a game advertised as a Clash of the Titans pitching matchup, of course it came down to the bullpens. The Atlanta bullpen did not surrender an earned run in 4.2 innings, while New York’s gave up 4 earned in 4 innings. Atlanta has reason to celebrate pulling this one out of nowhere. New York should feel disappointed in letting this game slip away.

I’m glad Shelby Miller didn’t get the loss today for the Braves. He has gotten almost no run support in the last month. Miller has not won a game for the Braves since his near no-hit bid against the Fish in South Beach over a month ago. Shelby went 6.1 innings, allowing 3 earned runs, striking out 4 while walking 2. His season’s ERA is just above 2.00 (2.02 ERA). Score this man some runs!

Offensively Andrelton Simmons, Cameron Maybin and Freddie Freeman all had great days at the plate for the Atlanta Braves. Simmons was a perfect 4-4 this afternoon with a run scored and a walk. He is now hitting .276 on the season. Get this man in the All-Star game, Atlanta!

Maybin was 3-6 with 3 RBI’s today. I’m glad he got a chance to redeem himself in extra innings after getting thrown out at the plate in the top of the eighth inning trying to tag on a very shallow fly ball to leftfield. Maybin is hitting .303 for the Braves with 32 RBI’s. I bet San Diego misses him terribly now that they’ve got Melvin Upton, Jr.

And Freddie Freeman continues to drive the New York Mets crazy. His solo shot in the first inning would have gone out of any ball park in the country. That was a moonshot. Freeman’s numbers on the year are .307 batting average, 12 home runs, and 39 runs batted in. I like Freddie’s chances of getting to his third consecutive All-Star game.

This was a great win for the Braves and the team needed this one. It’s not been a great last two weeks for the Atlanta ball club and it’s always great to beat those Mets, especially at their place. Today’s victory was actually Atlanta’s first win over the Mets this season. The deciding game in the series begins tomorrow afternoon at 1:10 PM ET when Mike Foltynewicz squares off with Braves nemesis Dillon Gee.

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