Willie Randolph downplayed the importance of a series victory over Atlanta yesterday morning. And when his team couldn’t quite come up with one, he nevertheless praised the Mets’ fighting spirit.
David Wright, though, couldn’t contain his frustration after another series loss to the Braves, saying there were no moral victories in the 7-6 win by Atlanta – despite a thrilling ninth-inning comeback.
The Mets trailed by four runs into the ninth, but Wright capped a three-run attack with a two-run homer to left-center off former Met Tyler Yates. Carlos Delgado followed with a deep shot to left-center off Oscar Villarreal that looked like the tying homer, but left fielder Willie Harris snared the ball above the fence with a leaping catch for the second out.
Moises Alou then grounded out as the Mets lost two of three to the Braves for the fourth time this season.
“They’ve got our number,” Wright said. “They’ve come in and just wiped us all over the field a number of different times.
“Hopefully the guys in this clubhouse, we take it personally. And the next time we play them, we go out there and prove that we’re the better team.
“But it’s tough to argue with the numbers. Up to this point, these guys have worn us out.”
The Mets (64-50) entered the day with the NL’s best record, and they now lead Atlanta by 3½ games after an eighth loss in 12 head-to-head matchups.
“The bottom line for me, really, is we’re the best team in the National League,” Randolph said beforehand. “So are we going to define ourselves by whether we win or lose to the Braves? Really? No.
“The Braves have to play everyone just like we do. Would we like to beat them? Of course. They’re our division rivals.”
John Maine allowed seven hits and six earned runs over 51/3 innings, and he disintegrated after taking a 2-1 lead into the fifth. Chipper Jones victimized Maine with a 470-foot, three-run shot off the scoreboard in right-center in the fifth that stunned a matinee crowd of 52,425 fans and gave the visitors the lead for good. Mark Teixeira added a back-to-back jack to cap the four-run frame.
“The offense did a good job today,” Maine said. “I didn’t do my part.”
Maine began the fifth allowing a single and a walk, and with one out Jones hit a majestic blow high off the right-center scoreboard on a 1-0 fastball. Even for the notorious Met killer, it was the type of shot that might reverberate until October.
“Two out of three the rest of the year and we won’t have to worry about it too much,” Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. “What are we down to, 21/2? We didn’t want to go out of here 71/2, that’s for sure.”
The Mets stranded two runners after taking a 2-0 lead in the third and left the bases loaded in the fifth after closing within 5-3.
“We’ve gotta go in for the kill when we’ve got big innings – or what seem to be big innings,” Wright said. “We’ve got to really tack on some extra runs and continue to not let your foot off their throat.”
Although Randolph conceded the Mets “made some mistakes early” and “let a couple runs slip away,” he didn’t seem overly agitated.
“The bottom line is that we had a good series,” Randolph said. “We would’ve loved to have won two out of three.”
