Kyle Taylor, Valdosta Today Sports
NEW YORK – The Braves were back on the road again Friday night to take on the division leading, New York Mets, at Citi Field.
Bartolo Colon (8-4) was going for his ninth win of the season, which would tie him with Felix Hernandez and Gerrit Cole for the most in MLB.
Alex Wood (4-3) got the call for the Braves in the first game of a very important series between two teams competing in the NL East.
The Mets came into Friday with a two and half game lead over Atlanta, and a half game lead over Washington.
The Braves now find themselves 4-7 so far in the month of June and there would be no better series than this one to get more in the win column.
However, the Braves fell Friday night to the Mets and Bartolo Colon. The final score was 5-3 in another win for the 42-year-old, Colon.
The Mets started off the scoring with a homer by Wilmer Flores (10) off of Alex Wood in the bottom of the second, and John Mayberry Jr. (3) followed with a long ball of his own to make the score 3-0 Mets after four innings. The Braves starter has allowed his share of hits during the season, but would also add four walks on Friday night in 6 1/3 innings.
Fredi Gonzalez spoke to MLB.com about the home runs and the former dimensions of Citi Field, “A couple years ago, those balls don’t go out. They just barely make it to the party deck. But guess what? That party deck is there for both teams.”
This was the first time in his career that Wood gave up more than one home run in a single game.
Alex Wood has a fair ERA against many of his opponents this season, but carries 4.85 ERA against the Mets, and a 6.17 against the Nationals.
The Braves bats once again made a valiant effort to come back from being down by adding two runs in the top of the fifth against Colon. Wood brought in Pierzynski with an RBI groundout that resulted in a force. Jace Peterson drove in Jonny Gomes with his sixth double of the season.
Peterson now has four multi-hit games in his last six.
The division foes would continue to trade runs in the sixth and seventh innings, but the Braves just could not hold them enough to take the lead, or even tie the game on Friday night.
Wood made a costly mistake in the sixth by attempting a pick-off play at second base with runners at first and second that ended up in center field. This set up the Mets with runners now at second and third with one out. It was the same scenario Jason Grilli found himself in a recent game. Wood then surrendered the Mets’ fourth run of the game on an RBI groundout.
Michael Cuddyer finished the scoring off with a double off of new Braves reliever, David Aardsma, making the score 5-3.
Jeurys Familia came on to save the game in the ninth after getting Nick Markakis to ground into his second double-play of the game, as the Mets would hold on for the win and take a three and a half game lead over Atlanta in the division.
Nick Markakis spoke with MLB.com about his missed opportunities at the plate, “I was just not sticking to my plan. When you change your thought process in the middle, it can really hurt you. It got me tonight.”
The Braves will try to get that much needed game back on Saturday afternoon in New York as they take on the Mets in game two of the series. First pitch will be thrown at 4:10 PM, with Shelby Miller (5-2) going against Jacob deGrom (7-4). Yes, a pitcher that starts his last name with a lowercase letter, but still, he can pitch. The two pitchers both have ERA’s under 2.50, and rarely give up more than two runs. Should be a fun one to watch from Citi Field on a Saturday afternoon.
