5/3/17
Braves Bullpen woes continue as Mets put up 16 runs
In game three of a four game series with the Mets, Bartolo Colon headed to the hill to face his former teammate, Jacob deGrom and improve on his last start where he gave up 6 earned runs on April 28th against the Brewers. It be came very evident in the first inning that Bartolo once again would struggle with his pitch location after giving up three doubles and a walk allowing Asdrubal Cabrera and Neil Walker to both secure RBI’s and put the Mets up 2-0 after the top of the first and never looking back. Jacob deGrom came to the mound with some momentum after a 7 inning, 3 earned run win against the Nationals in his last start. DeGrom faced the regular everyday rotation and had no trouble sitting down the side with two ground outs and a strikeout in only 9 pitches.
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Things only got worse for Colon in the third when Mets, Curtis Granderson, hit an RBI double, ultimately starting yet another scoring streak where the Mets would score 3 more runs, courtesy of Jose Reyes and Renee Rivera to push the lead to 5-0. In the bottom of the third and fourth, the Braves were able to produce some runs! Dansby Swanson, although not hitting well, was able to draw a walk followed by a single by Adonis Garcia brought up Freddie Freeman with runners in scoring position and once again, Mr. Reliable came through, with a RBI single, finally putting the Braves on the scoreboard 5-1 in the third. In the fourth, pinch hitter, Emilio Bonifacio, hit a triple to deep right field scoring Markakis and Swanson and cutting into the lead at 5-3. After seeing Colon give up 5 earned runs on 68 pitches, Braves Manager, Brian Snitker finally called to the bullpen and sent Josh Collmenter to relieve Colon of his duties.
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Collmenter who had been pretty unstoppable in his previous outing, having pitched 2 innings and striking out 4, couldn’t get anything going in the 5th and after giving up a single and yet another double for Granderson, fell off the deep end giving up 3 more hits and 4 earned runs on 27 pitches and letting a 9-3 Mets lead transpire. After only 1 full inning of work, Collmenter was yanked from the mound in hopes of stopping the game from getting away.
The Braves were in a constant uphill battle, unable to hang with the amount of runs the Mets were forcing on them. In the bottom of the fifth, Jace Peterson was able to make the most of his playing time but sending a deep double to right center field and scoring two of his teammates making it 9-5.
The Braves next two relief men, Ian Krol and Jason Motte, pitching the seventh and eighth innings respectively, were simply amazing, only giving up one hit between the two of them. But the final two pitchers were the exact opposite. Starting with Eric O’Flaherty, who was unable to get his fastball down and started his inning by giving up two singles and a walk, making the bases loaded with one out and Jose Reyes up to bat. O’Flaherty then threw a fastball that Reyes smashed to left field allowing all three base runners to score making the game far out of reach at 12-5. Matt Wisler then took over in his fourth appearance of 2017, and was no match for the five batters he faced, who were combined 6-18 for the game. Wisler gave up four hits and allowed four runs, putting the scoring total to 16-5. The Braves were unable to score again and are believed to be glad that game is finally over!
The Braves look to get their bullpen back in order and even the series tomorrow with Jaime Garcia taking the mound against Mets, Zack Wheeler in the final game of the series at 7:35pm start EST.
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