The Braves scored all nine of their runs in the first two innings on Saturday night, which was more than enough against Mets ace Johan Santana. Freddie Freeman's homer highlighted a seven-run second inning for Atlanta, providing Kris Medlen with tons of room to work as the Braves went on to win by a score of 9-3.
Medlen continued his strong work on the mound, tossing 6.1 innings of one-run ball. He tossed 88 pitches, a season high for him. Meds scattered five hits and a walk, striking out seven Mets batters with a nice mix of his fastball, changeup and curveball.
Luis Avilan and Cory Gearrin worked the final 2.2 innings for the club, splitting the duties evenly. Avilan surrendered two runs on a hit and walk, while Gearrin gave up nothing more than two hits.
Freeman roped a two-run double down the first base line in the first inning to give Atlanta a 2-0 lead. After a couple of bloop hits to ignite a rally, Medlen helped his own cause with a seeing-eye single that snuck through the right side of the infield to make it 3-0. Michael Bourn, Jason Heyward and Chipper Jones all singled to plate one run, pushing the lead to 6-0.
Then came one of the biggest homers of the season from Freeman. He crushed a belt-high fastball to center field, clearing the big apple. Early estimates have the shot at 455 feet. Look for it on the highlight shows tonight, folks.
The Mets scored a run in the second on an RBI-single from Andres Torres. They added two more in the bottom of the eighth once the game was out of hand.
The Braves will go for the series sweep on Sunday Night Baseball. They'll turn to Ben Sheets, while New York has Jon Niese pencilled in to make the start.
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