Game 114: Mets 6, Braves 5
August 12, 2012 at 11:14 pm by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
Source: FanGraphs
Game MVP: Jon Niese, 70 game score
Least Valuable Met: Bullpen
Most Valuable Brave: Martin Prado, .121
Least Valuable Brave: Jason Heyward, -.262
Big plays:
1st – (ATL) Chipper Jones grounded into an inning-ending double play with a runner on third, -.114
1st – (NYM) David Wright RBI double for a 1-0 Mets lead, .143
2nd – (ATL) Freddie Freeman solo homer for a 2-1 Mets lead, .098
2nd – (NYM) Ruben Tejada RBI single for a 3-1 Mets lead, .098
9th – (ATL) Prado two-run double for a 6-5 Mets lead, .122
9th – (ATL) Heyward strikeout with tying run on third to end the game, -.198
The Braves scored four in the ninth on one hit thanks to a failing Mets bullpen, but with the tying run on third and two outs, Heyward struck out to end the game. It happens. Move on.
Ben Sheets finally ran into a bad outing, allowing five runs on eight hits in six innings, walking one and striking out five. Sheets still had nine ground balls and eight whiffs, but he left enough pitches over the plate to get knocked around some early, resulting in a true .350 BABIP and seven line drives allowed. One start like this isn’t worth a worry; doing this multiple times in a row is when you start worrying.
The bright spots were Freeman’s 15th home run of the season, mashed on a outside cutter by Niese. Prado had two doubles and Bourn added a double.
The Braves couldn’t take advantage of a Nationals loss, but sweeping a team isn’t an easy thing to do, no matter who you are or who you’re playing. Atlanta will head home to host the Padres for four games looking to continue the series wins.
Loading ...
2-3, rinse, repeat.
If only we could have pushed across single runs in the first and eighth innings. If Prado had pulled off the double steal with Bourn in the first, and we had avoided the double play, and gotten Freddie up to hit his tater with men on base. If Sheets (and Martinez) had had just one less inning of being bleeped and blooped to death. If Prado had made a better throw to the plate early on to cut down one of their early runs. If in the 9th, McCann and Uggla had realized what Janish and Juan Francisco, of all people, realized, namely that the Mets’ bullpen couldn’t throw a strike and that it is a better idea to take a walk when you’re trailing by five in the 9th than it is to swing away.
If, if, if.
One of the more frustrating games I’ve ever watched.
It would have been foolish for Prado to be the trail runner in a double steal with one out. If Prado gets thrown out, then it completely ruins the chance of a sacrifice fly plating one run.
Prado is 14/16 in SB this year. I think he did not go cause he wasnt sure if Bourn was stealing cause with Bourn’s speed he has to have the green light practically anywhere.
I hate that argument of if this happens then we would have been better off. Not cause it did not happen but because you are changing a scenario. With a change in scenario, approaches do change, and results change. It is unclear if it is better or worse. With 2nd and 3rd Chipper could have had a sac fly and Freeman K’s. Still only 1 run but that could have started the offense earlier. Again nobody knows.
ehh, no worries. What are you gonna do? Sheets was sub-par, Niese was really good, we were down by 5 in the 9th and still had a pretty decent shot at tying or winning the ballgame. When you’ve already won the first 2 games, you can’t really ask for a whole lot more. Yeah, it would’ve been really nice to make up some ground on the Nats, but we’re playing well right now. We just need them to lose some.
Heyward’s at bat in the 1st and 9th irked me. Sometimes you can just feel that he is going to strike out before it happens. 1st inning at bat was horrendous. Can’t pull that crap with two men on.
This game was lost in the first inning as much as or more than it was in the ninth inning. You know that their bullpen is terrible and that you have a good shot of doing damage against them in the late innings, which the Braves did. What you’ve got to do is put Niese away, or at least score a run or two, when you’ve got first and second and no outs in the first. Letting him completely off the hook at the beginning of the game proved to be the difference in the end.
Frustrating game, but when you face a good pitcher (which basically every team has one or two anymore) you’re bound to have this happen. When was the last time we lost a game where the other pitcher didn’t pitch a VERY good game? That seems to be the only way to win for these other teams right now which bodes well for the Braves. Let’s go get at least 3 in SD!
Hated to see Sheets have a rough outing, but I’m sure we all knew as well as Ben himself, that it was bound to happen. Nice thing is that our bats and pitching have both been stellar since the trade deadline. Read an article saying the Braves are a Major League best 14-3 since July 13th or so… well 14-4 I guess now. Just sucks that the Nats probably have the 2nd best record.
Here’s to getting back on track tonight and Sheets being the veteran pitcher we know he is and not dwelling on the bad outing!
It seems to me that Sheets may be hitting a wall. The announcers on the game talked about how his velocity had been declining with ever start. I’m thinking the Braves may have gotten about all that they can out of Sheets and that he may regress significantly-which might still be better than what they were getting before. From everything I have heard, Sheets has been pretty lucky in his last few starts and that is probably not sustainable.
As we all know… the announcers are idiots. Here are his average velocities from each game thus far this season.
http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=710&position=P&type=11&gds=&gde=&season=2012
He actually had his highest average velocity on the fastball of any of his starts last night. While pitching like he had been through the first 4 starts was very unlikely to continue, I doubt he’s hitting a wall. He just had a bad start. It happens.
caught this one on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, one of the few Braves games I’ve gotten to watch live this year. Disappointing 8 innings, but exciting 9th! Bummer they couldn’t pull it off, but good to have the series victory anyway.
Somebody was not rally capping hard enough in the ninth.
I’m sorry, I’ll admit I turned the game off because dinner was ready.