Jason Heyward's 16th home run of the season was a 390 foot blast over the right field wall.
photo by Tim Evearitt
ATLANTA -- Atlanta's march to the playoffs continued Monday night as the Braves claimed a 9-3 win over the NY Mets at Turner Field.
The win coupled with the Phils 3-0 loss to the Dodgers gives the Braves a 3.0 game lead in the NL East race.
Jason Heyward highlighted a career-high four-RBI performance with a three-run homer (16th of the season) in the second inning that provided the margin that Jair Jurrjens (6-4) needed. Jurrjens remains an unbeaten 6-0 at home this season with an ERA of 2.14.
Mets starter Pat Misch (0-4) lasted just three innings.
The Braves improved their Major League leading home record to 47-18. The Mets are now 26-41 on the road.
Heyward opened this four-game series tying a career-high with four hits. He extended his hitting streak to five games. Over that span, Heyward is batting .526 (10-for-19). The 21-year-old outfielder had batted .148 with one homer in the 17 games that preceded this span. Tonight's performance was his 32nd multi-hit game of the season.
Heyward gave the Braves some early breathing room with his three-run, second-inning homer off Misch. He created just as much excitement with the tremendous hustle he showed while scoring from first base on Martin Prado's two-out, sixth-inning single. His slide into home was a thing of beauty. Manager Bobby Cox said of the slide, "Unbelievable. He can do things on the bases; his instincts are so great."
Heyward's early contributions built a 5-2 lead in the second for Jurrjens, who was just five days removed from allowing the Rockies to erase an early nine-run deficit and claim a thrilling win over the Braves.
Jurrjens allowed three earned runs and six hits while matching a career high with six walks over 5 2/3 innings.
Cox said of Jurrjens, "JJ was off his mark tonight but he had unbelievable stuff. The walks got his pitch count up; we were hoping he could go seven innings tonight at least, but he battled through it. He just got off target; lost his aim."
The 24-year-old right-hander allowed two of the first three batters he faced to reach safely, then ended the first inning by victimizing David Wright and Ike Davis with two of his eight strikeouts.
The Mets produced three baserunners before recording their first out in both the two-run second and sixth. Josh Thole's RBI triple would account for the only sixth-inning run charged to Jurrjens, who exited with the bases loaded. Left-handed reliever Eric O'Flaherty squelched the threat by getting Chris Carter to ground out to shortstop Alex Gonzalez.
Cox said, "O'Flaherty got a huge out there. There's no telling what's going to happen if they got a hit there."
While Jurrjens struggled with his command throughout this 108-pitch effort, he aided his cause with a two-out single in the second that helped prolong the inning long enough for Heyward to drill Misch's 2-1 changeup into the right-field seats.
Billy Wagner pitched the ninth inning in a non-save situation.
Highlights
Atlanta scored six of their runs with two men out.
With the infield shift on against him in the third inning, Brian McCann dropped a bunt down the third base line for a hit
McCann hit his second homer in as many days, a 389 foot blast into the right-field seats. He has 19 home runs for the season.
Omar Infante went 2-for-4 notching his 39th multi-hit game of the season.
Derrek Lee was 2-for-5 collecting his first multi-hit game with the Braves, but 31st of the season.
Martin Prado tied Ichiro Suzuki for the Major League lead with his 51st multi-hit game of the year.
Former Brave Jeff Francoeur went 2-for-5 extending his hitting streak to five games.
Ike Davis hit his 25th double on the season in the seventh, moving him past Heyward for third among NL rookies.
Box Score
MLB.com's Mike Bauman has an interesting article on the Braves pitching, and Monday's 9-3 win.
Pitching again Braves strength
Mike Minor makes his third start of the season for the Braves Tuesday night. Minor, the seventh overall pick in 2009 Draft, set a Braves rookie record with 12 strikeouts in six innings during a victory over the Cubs in Chicago on Aug. 22. He will be working on extra rest against the Mets.
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Additional source from MLB.com
Heyward is greeted by Brian Snitker as he rounds third base.
photo by Tim Evearitt