Braves Take Opener Of Series At Soggy Citi Field

Max Fried pitching to Francisco Alvarez in the fifth inning. Photo by Jason Schott.

 

The Atlanta Braves beat the Mets, 4-0, in a rain-shortened game on Friday night at Citi Field. The Braves scoring all their runs, including on a three-run home run from Matt Olson, in the fifth and what would be final inning. 

This is the first of four games the National League East rivals, who each won 101 games last season (Atlanta took the division on a tiebreaker), will play in this weekend wraparound series. 

The game began on time despite a steady downpour, and Mets starter David Peterson opened it by retiring the first five Braves hitters, which included three strikeouts. Atlanta eked out just one hit, a Vaughn Grissom single in the second inning, and one walk in the first four innings.

David Peterson pitching to Matt Olson in the first inning. Photo by Jason Schott.

Braves starter Max Fried matched Peterson with four shutout innings, as he scattered two hits and a walk.

With the rain coming down the heaviest it had all night and the field starting to get evident puddles, it was evident that the fifth inning, when the game would become official, would decide it.

Grissom opened the top of the fifth with a groundout to shortstop, and then Eddie Rosario singled and Kevin Pillar doubled to give Atlanta runners at second and third base.

Michael Harris II then hit one to third base, and Brett Baty made a phenomenal play to fire home and retire Rosario for the second out.

Ronald Acuna, Jr., was up next, and he flicked one into right field for an RBI single to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. 

Matt Olson followed with a blast to right field for a three-run home run to make it 4-0 Atlanta. It was the Braves' first baseman's eight dinger of the season, to go along with 25 RBI.

In the bottom half of the fifth, Fried worked around a two-out single to Francisco Alvarez by striking out Brandon Nimmo for what would turn out to be the final out of the game.

Fried improved to 2-0 with an astonishing 0.45 earned run average (ERA), as he gave up no runs on three hits and a walk, with seven strikeouts.

Peterson fell to 1-4 on the season and saw his ERA jump to 7.34, as he allowed four runs (all earned) on five hits and a walk, with six strikeouts.

METS THANK FANS: The Mets sent out a press release with that title after the game that reads as follows: As a thank you to our fans, anyone holding a ticket for tonight's game against Atlanta will receive a voucher for a ticket to another Monday-Thursday Mets 2023 regular season home game at Citi Field (excluding the June 13-14 Subway Series vs. Yankees), subject to availability. The digital voucher will be loaded into each attending patron's My Mets Tickets account (accessed by clicking the Vouchers tab) and will be accessible tomorrow morning. For more information, please visit Mets.com/Rain.