Offical: Mets Vs Braves Series

[chicken wing]

Got love seeing reyes driving in 4 runs hitting 2 triples and scoring 2 runs. glavine vs smoltz today at 3:55. i hope glavine pitches another gem. and i would love to see us continue with our beautiful hitting

[chicken wing]

ATLANTA -- So much for Spring Training and talk of those starting pitching woes.
Jose Reyes had two triples, one from each side of the plate, and a single, and Oliver Perez allowed one run and five hits in seven innings as the New York Mets defeated the Atlanta Braves, 11-1, on a frosty Friday night at Turner Field.

"The starting pitching has been awesome so far," said Reyes, who went 3-for-6, with four RBIs and two runs scored. "They're throwing strikes, and when they throw strikes, they put us in a good position to win. They keep pitching like that, we're going to be dangerous."

A sellout crowd of 51,014 for the Braves' home opener saw the Mets improve to 4-0 for the third time in team history, the first time since 1985, and the first time in franchise history they've started 4-0 all on the road.

Perez (1-0), who gave up six earned runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings the last time he started at Turner Field, stymied Atlanta, which was looking to go 4-0 for the first time since 1994. He threw 82 pitches, 56 for strikes, struck out six, did not walk a batter and retired the last 10 Braves he faced.

It was Perez's first game with six or more innings pitched without a walk since Sept. 29, 2002. Perez won on the road for the first time since Sept. 24, 2005, when he earned the victory for Pittsburgh in an 8-3 win at Los Angeles. He was 0-7 away from home last season for the Pirates and Mets.

"When he throws strikes and he's pounding the zone, he can be pretty dominant like he was tonight," said manager Willie Randolph. "Every once in a while he'll get away from himself a little bit, but he was able to regroup and gather himself. He pitched a great game."

"He's pounding the strike zone, he's coming right after guys, and he made some good pitches when he had to," added catcher Paul Lo Duca, who went 3-for-5, to raise his 2007 average to .444. "[He got] a couple of double-play balls again today. It seems like that's been the theme so far, we've gotten some big double-play balls."

None was bigger than the one the Mets got with nobody out in the fourth inning while up 2-0. Chipper Jones had just singled and was at first base, but Perez got Andruw Jones to pound an 0-1 pitch to short, where Reyes started the 6-4-3 double play. The next batter, Jeff Francoeur, homered, the only mistake Perez made all night.

"You'll take those," said Lo Duca. "As long as there's nobody on base, solo home runs are fine."

Following the Francoeur homer, Perez rebounded, not allowing another baserunner.

"I used my split and my slider," said the lefty, who evened his record at 3-3 lifetime against the Braves and lowered his career ERA against them to 3.33. "Everything was down in the zone.

"[Pitching coach Rick Peterson] told me don't always throw a hard [breaking ball]," Perez added. "Sometimes throw a slower one. It worked tonight."

Everything seems to be working for the Mets thus far. In four games, Mets starters have allowed just three runs over 27 innings.

Mark Redman (0-1) took the loss for Atlanta, allowing five runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings.

The two-triple game for Reyes was the third of his career and keyed a 15-hit attack that included seven extra-base hits and saw every Met get at least one hit. "Every time I see the ball in the gap, 99 percent of them are going to be a triple and I'm going to be at third base," said Reyes, who raised his career average against the Braves to .351 and his lifetime average at Turner Field to .298. "I just put the ball in the right place. That makes it easy for me."

Lo Duca also had three hits, while David Wright and Moises Alou had two hits each.

Lo Duca's first-inning sacrifice fly scored Reyes, who tripled on Redman's third pitch of the game. Jose Valentin added a fourth-inning RBI double and Shawn Green had a sixth-inning run-scoring single. Green and Perez, who singled, scored when Reyes smacked a 1-2 offering from reliever Oscar Villarreal to the wall in right-center for a triple that opened a 5-1 bulge.

New York broke the game open in the eighth, sending up 13 batters and plating six runs on two-run singles by Reyes and Carlos Delgado, an RBI double by Wright, and a Macay McBride wild pitch.

Ironically the extended eighth inning prevented Perez from coming out to pitch another inning, but that was about the only thing that didn't go according to plan for the Mets.

In the end, while the wind whipped (enough to cancel postgame fireworks) and the temperatures dropped, the Mets remained unbeaten and red hot.

"It was pretty nippy. But they warmed my heart tonight," said Randolph, breaking into a smile. "So I'm feeling pretty warm."

[Jose7]

Homie, we have a series thread made by Remember the Past every series.

[Manhattan Project]

Yeah stick with the current thread we have stickied.