Game Recap: Braves 8 – Mets 7

A walk-off win wasn’t in the cards two days in a row.

The Atlanta Braves (17-17) beat the New York Mets (18-15) by a score of 8-7 in 12 innings.

Jon Niese started the game and struggled to make it through five innings.  He allowed five earned runs on seven hits and two walks.  He struck out five.  Every member of the bullpen got into the game with Brian Stokes, Francisco Rodriguez, Sean Green and Pedro Feliciano turning in shutout efforts.

Bobby Parnell was charged with one unearned run.  J.J. Putz allowed an earned run on two hits.  Ken Takahashi allowed a solo home run in the top of the 12th inning, which ended up being the game winner.

The Mets pounded out 12 hits and seven runs, but fell one run short.  Luis Castillo had an RBI triple in the first.  In the fourth with the bases loaded, Fernando Tatis crushed a grand slam to deep center field, giving the Mets the lead. 

In the 8th, with the Mets down one, Gary Sheffield blasted a solo home run, No. 501 of his career, deep to left.  In the bottom of the 12th, Jose Reyes missed a game tying home run by a few feet and landed him on second base with none out.  After Castillo sacrificed him to third, Mike Gonzalez struck out Carlos Beltran and Sheffield to end the game.

Again, nice to see some fight but the Mets came up just short.  A great battle between two good teams.  It was quite enjoyable, even if the Mets couldn’t pull it out.  The Mets have won eight of their last 10.