The Game

The New York Mets snapped their one game losing streak with a come from behind 7-3 victory against the arch rival Atlanta Braves at Shea Stadium on Tuesday night. The Mets have now won seven of their last eight games and maintain a one and a half game lead over the second place Phillies.

Tuesday night’s game started off as many recent Met games have- with New York jumping out to a first inning lead. The Mets scored two in the first off Atlanta starter Jo-Jo Reyes (seriously, what kind of an adult goes by the name Jo-Jo?) courtesy of a David Wright sac fly and a Fernando Tatis RBI double. But, as we have seen this team do so often when struggling, New York failed to put their opponent away early and completely shut down offensively… managing just one more hit off Reyes through six innings. Meanwhile, Ollie Perez started for the Mets and looked an awful lot like the wild and inconsistent Perez we have oft seen over the past couple of years. Perez did, however, battle through it and keep Atlanta in check for the most part. The Braves did get to Perez for three runs in the third inning on RBIs by Chipper Jones, Brian McCann, and Jeff Francoeur. As his pitch count rose and with the Braves threatening in the seventh, Perez was lifted in favor of Luis Ayala who made his Met debut with runners on first and third and just one out. Ayala immediately endeared himself to the Shea faithful as he induced pop ups from Omar Infante20and Brian McCann to end the threat and keep the score 3-2 Atlanta.

The Mets appeared to be running out of chances as the Braves maintained their one run advantage into the bottom of the eighth. After Jose Reyes grounded out to start the frame, the New York offense suddenly woke up. Nick Evans and David Wright both worked out walks and Carlos Beltran followed with an infield single to load the bases for Carlos Delgado. After a scorching July, the Met first baseman had struggled through the first part of August. Lefty specialist Will Ohman was brought on to face Delgado and Carlos proceeded to crush a two run double off the wall in left center field to give New York a 4-3 lead. After an intentional walk to Fernando Tatis, Damion Easley ripped a two run single of his own and Ramon Castro closed out the scoring with an RBI double that plated one to make it 7-3 Mets. Scott Schoeneweis came on to pitch a scoreless ninth and New York walked away with a nice victory to kick off their homestand. Game two of the three game set will take place on Wednesday night as Mike Pelfrey squares off against Jair Jurrjens of the Braves.

The Haiku

Perez muddles through
Delgado breaks out of slump
Then Easley insures

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Chuck Buono
Haiku by Howard Megdal