They haven’t accomplished much outside the division, but these Mets are still beasts of the East.
So you can’t blame manager Terry Collins’ crew for rolling out a welcome mat for the Braves, long removed from their days of tormenting this franchise.
On Friday night, the Mets made it five straight wins over the Braves since April with a 5-3 victory in front of 32,554 at Citi Field.
It wasn’t pretty, but the Mets aren’t in this for the style points. Bartolo Colon gave the team six solid innings and Wilmer Flores and John Mayberry Jr. each homered in helping the Mets improve to 22-11 in the NL East. Outside the division, the Mets are 11-18.
“We’ve always said that in order to win the division you have to win within the division,” said Michael Cuddyer, whose Mets moved 1 ½ games ahead of Washington in the NL East. “You play so many games against division opponents that it’s the only way you’re going to do it.”
Collins hopes the Mets can use their strong record against the NL East as a springboard later in the season.
“You look at the last month and we’ve got a lot of division games,” Collins said. “As long as we continue to play well in our division, you’ve got to like the way things are going.”
Jeurys Familia, awaiting the birth of a child with his girlfriend, hung around to record the final three outs for his 18th save in 19 chances, getting Nick Markakis to hit into a double play to end the game with the bases loaded.
Colon (9-4) had runners on base consistently in the middle innings, but survived and tied Pittsburgh’s Gerrit Cole for the major league lead in victories. Overall, the right-hander allowed two earned runs on six hits with two walks and three strikeouts over six innings that consisted of 100 pitches. Both of the Braves’ runs against Colon came in the fifth.
“I felt a little tired in the fifth inning,” Colon said. “I tried to do a little too much and I thought the inning was going to be longer and I executed pitches at times and I got myself out of it.”
For Colon, it was a third straight strong start after a May swoon in which he was pummeled and saw his ERA surge to 4.85. That number has dropped by nearly a half-run over his past three starts.
Cuddyer gave the Mets breathing room with an RBI double in the seventh that extended the lead to 5-3.
It continued a surge for Cuddyer, who delivered a game-winning RBI single against the Giants a night earlier.
Alex Torres allowed a run in the seventh that sliced the Mets’ lead to 4-3, but was fortunate the Braves didn’t tie the game or move ahead. Markakis hit into a double play with the bases loaded and nobody out to help ensure the inning wouldn’t get too crazy.
Alex Wood’s errant throw on a pickoff attempt at second base in the sixth inning helped the Mets score an unearned run to take a 4-2 lead.
Jace Peterson’s RBI double was the big hit in the Braves’ two-run fifth, but the damage could have been much worse for Colon, who left the bases loaded by retiring Markakis, who left nine runners on base — retired three times with the bases loaded.
Mayberry hit a two-run homer in the fourth that extended the Mets’ lead to 3-0.
Flores’ homer leading off the second gave the Mets their first run. The blast was Flores’ 10th this season, moving him into a tie with the Cardinals’ Jhonny Peralta for the major league lead among shortstops.
“It feels good when we win games like this, a close game,” Flores said. “It means that we executed.”
