Atlanta’s gone winless over its past six games and the Braves will look to stop the bleeding tonight in New York.
Julio Teheran will get the ball for the first game of this series, as he tries to recover from a tough outing last Apr. 19, when he was rocked with seven runs on seven hits in a 14-4 home loss to Washington. Before getting sledgehammered by the Nationals, Teheran was doing fine, going 1-0 with a 0.95 ERA in his first three starts.
This is going to be Teheran’s second meeting with the Mets this season. He pitched a sterling six-inning scoreless road gem on Apr. 3, though the Mets ended up losing that game 6-0 due to their wacky bullpen that gave up all of New York’s runs. Atlanta’s starters have been unwinding great games of late, having pooled together eight quality starts over the past 10 games but Atlanta’s offense just can’t seem to get its pitchers enough run support. Atlanta averaged just 2.5 runs over its past six outings.
If only the Braves are composed of Freddie Freeman clones, the Braves wouldn’t be having issues on offense. Freeman is having quite a start to the season, slashing .381/.494/.810 with seven home runs so far this year. Freeman is 5-for-9 lifetime with a homer against Mets starter, Noah Syndergaard.
Like Atlanta, the Mets are caught in a slump, having lost all of their last four games. Moreover, they’re just 1-8 in their last nine games. That’s just disappointing for a team expected to compete for supremacy in the National League East division. A big problem for the Mets is their offense which has produced just three or fewer runs in six of their past nine contests. In a three-game season sweep at the hands of Washington, the Mets mustered just seven total runs.
There’s a potential for the Mets’ hitters to break out after a long time later tonight, as they face Atlanta’s rotten bullpen—ranks 12th in the league in ERA.
As mentioned earlier, the Mets made a killing opposite New York’s relievers on Apr. 3, a game started by Noah Syndergaard. Thor pitched six innings of scoreless baseball in that game, giving up five hits and striking out seven.
Syndergaard picked up a loss in his most recent start, allowing three earned runs on five hits in seven innings of a 6-4 home loss to Philly. The Mets are 2-1 in Syndergaard’s last three home starts.
