Braves 6 Mets 3
ATLANTA – They are tight. This what Mike Piazza thinks when the Mets enter Turner Field. This is how he explains last night’s 6-3 loss to the Braves, which was the same old story, the same old sickening sight for Met fans.
The best hitting catcher in the history of the game said this after the Braves beat the Mets for the 19th time in the last 21 games at The Ted.
“Coming in here we just play a little tight,” Piazza said. “We don’t execute the way we should. If we knew how to change it, obviously we would. It’s frustrating.”
Piazza promises the Mets – who dropped four games behind the Braves and can’t leave here with a share of first place – will keep fighting, which is all well and good, but it is apparent until the Mets start to have a little fun, until they win a game every once in awhile in Atlanta, then the division title will remain here.
Why should anyone believe there is a race in the NL East? The Mets are trying, but do they believe they can beat the Braves; especially here?
“You have to win,” Robin Ventura said. “That’s the only way it happens.”
Piazza added, “You want to stay away from that desperation sort of attitude.”
Last night ended in a way that had to disgust Met fans as they sat in front of their TV sets wearing orange and blue.
In the eighth, down 6-0 and with Greg Maddux out and finally able to relax, the Mets came back on a homer from Derek Bell and a two-run single from Ventura, who had followed a Piazza double.
This cut the lead to 6-3 and there were visions of another miraculous comeback, like the 10-run eighth June 30 at Shea.
After a Todd Zeile intentional walk, Jay Payton – representing the tying run – flied out to left against Mike Remlinger.
This brought pinch-hitter Bubba Trammell to the plate and out of the bullpen came John Rocker, sprinting in with his eyes wide, a sickening sight for Met fans. He induced Trammell to pop out.
Then in the ninth, after a two-out single by Bell, Edgardo Alfonzo came up with Piazza on deck. But Alfonzo popped out to Wally Joyner in foul territory to end the game as Rocker pumped his fist to celebrate the win and his 23rd save.
“It’s just one of those things, there is no way to explain it,” Maddux said of the Braves’ domination over the Mets.
How about this for an explanation – Maddux (18-8) was awesome.
The Braves starter controlled the game. He extended his scoreless streak to 291/3 innings. In the seventh, with two outs, Maddux struck out pinch-hitter Darryl Hamilton with men on first and third.
Maddux, who foreshadowed the evening with a nine-pitch first inning, told manager Bobby Cox he was done after this at-bat.
Meanwhile, the Braves finished off Mike Hampton after six, scoring five runs. Hampton (13-10) had only given up six runs in his previous 30 innings.
The guys who beat Hampton last night, Andres Galarraga, Brian Jordan, Walt Weiss and the Jones boys – Chipper and Andruw – all hit more than .330 against lefties.
More good news for Met fans: Starting tonight is Glendon Rusch, a lefty. Starting tomorrow, Al Leiter, a lefty.
Hampton – who said he was OK after taking a smash off his wrist in the third inning – had trouble finding the inner half of the plate.
He was beaten by a Weiss squeeze bunt in the second, which brought home Galarraga, who had doubled the opposite way and moved over on a groundout.
In the fourth, Hampton walked the speedy rookie Rafael Furcal to start the inning before Andruw Jones lined a shot between short and third and Chipper Jones and Brian Jordan – who homered in the seventh off Pat Mahomes – ripped back-to-back RBI singles to center. Chipper Jones would later score on a Weiss groundout.
“You guys can call it what you want, I hope whatever it is, we keep having it,” Chipper Jones
Bobby Valentine came into last night talking about how the Braves aren’t as good as they once were and how they’ve dropped closer to the Mets level.
You don’t have to play a perfect game to beat Atlanta anymore, he said. This may be true, but if you are imperfect, you have no chance. There are 19-out-of-21 reasons to believe that.
