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Atlanta Braves Travel to Citi Field to Face 1st Place Mets

By Jonathan Savitske

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The Atlanta Braves are having their best stretch of their second half of the season currently, winning 3 games in a row and are coming off a sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies at home.

Over the course of the last 3 games, the starting pitching has been excellent. Julio Teheran only gave up 1 run in a no-decision in Sunday’s walk-off victory, while Williams Perez seems to have righted the ship after struggling when he came off the Disabled List in late July.

-= Related: Williams Perez Rebounding Well After Difficult August =-

The Atlanta Braves travel to New York to face the New York Mets in a 3-game series with the NL East division leaders. The Mets lost 2 games in a row this weekend to their cross-town rivals, the New York Yankees. The Mets had a 9.5 game lead in the NL East a week ago, but the Washington Nationals have slimmed their deficit in the division to 6 games with less than two weeks left, coming off a sweep of the Miami Marlins.

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Atlanta may be out of playoff contention, but can play the role of spoiler against their perennial divisional rivals during this series. It would serve the Braves well to end the season on a good note after all of their struggles in the second half of 2015. With the Mets having cooled off a bit since they swept the Atlanta Braves in a four-game series at Turner Field last weekend, a little revenge may be in order. Here are the pitching matchups for the Braves’ upcoming series:

Monday:

Shelby Miller (5-15, 3.00 ERA) vs. Jonathan Niese (8-10, 4.31 ERA)

Shelby Miller has not won since May 17th — a period of 22 consecutive winless starts for the Atlanta Braves’ ace. His last start was his worst of the season, where he only went 3.2 innings while allowing 5 runs (4 earned). Physical and mental fatigue may have already begun to set in for Miller, but we all know that he will come to play on Monday to attempt to finally get a win.

Jonathan Niese has had a mediocre season for the Mets, but has always seemed to pitch impressively against the Atlanta Braves. In his last 4 games, the Mets southpaw has a 7.97 ERA. Look for the Braves to take advantage of his recent struggles.

Tuesday:

Matt Wisler (5-8, 5.63 ERA) vs. Logan Verrett  (1-1, 2.89 ERA)

Matt Wisler pitched a quality start in his last game against the Toronto Blue Jays, but gave up 4 runs to their explosive offense. Wisler has not pitched well on the road in 2015, owning 7.43 ERA away from Turner Field.

Mets rookie Logan Verrett has been used primarily as a reliever this season, but will start on Wednesday. In his last start, Verrett went 5.0 innings while allowing only 1 earned run against the Miami Marlins.

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Wednesday:

Williams Perez (6-6, 5.16 ERA) vs. Bartolo Colon (14-12, 4.15 ERA)

Atlanta Braves rookie Williams Perez has rebounded well over his last few starts after struggling coming off the DL in late July. In his last start against the Phillies, Perez pitched 5.2 innings while only giving up 1 earned run. In the month of September, Perez has a 3.80 ERA.

The 42-year-old Bartolo Colon has been solid for the New York Mets all season, and is currently 7th in the National League in wins. Colon almost always seems to get run support when on the mound, and has given the Atlanta Braves fits since coming to New York.

This is an important series for the psyche of the Atlanta Braves. If they can go to Queens and come out with a victory, it will allow them to end the season on a good note, and look ahead to 2016 with some optimism. Let’s just hope that at the very least Shelby Miller will snap his 22 consecutive winless streak on Monday. Go Braves!

Next: Atlanta Braves Walkoff 2-1, Sweep Phillies

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