Heyward homer keys big inning as Braves beat Mets

By David O'Brien

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

NEW YORK -- The Braves had a players-only meeting in the afternoon Friday, and by the second inning Friday night it seemed likely they might never, ever call such a meeting again.

Then Omar Infante and Jason Heyward came to the rescue.

Infante hit a two-run double and Heyward belted a three-run homer, consecutive two-out hits that fueled a six-run fourth inning to send the Braves and Tommy Hanson to a 6-4 win against the New York Mets at Citi Field.

All six runs in the inning were unearned after an error by Mets third baseman David Wright.

"You've got to be able to take advantage of every opportunity,"  said Heyward, who has six homers in his past 25 games and 18 for the season. "Are you always going to? No, but it's great to be able to get it done, to be able to come through when you're in a situation to win the game.

"That's all you can ask for every night, to be in a situation to win the game."

The Braves hoped it wasn't a costly win, however, after reliever Takashi Saito left with a sore pitching shoulder in the eighth inning. The 40-year-old right-hander left with two outs.

"I'm not sure," said manager Bobby Cox, whose Braves remained three games behind National League East leader Philadelphia. "He had to leave the game, so that's never good. We'll get him evaluated, whatever we have to do, and hopefully he can pitch at some point in  time soon."

Saito said he felt pain in the shoulder on the last two pitches he made. The valuable setup man had shoulder soreness at two other points during the season, and the Braves have been careful to give him extra rest between appearances since midseason.

"I am concerned because I still don't know what's wrong yet," Saito said through his interpreter. ""It's more inside [the shoulder], so I can't really say if it's the front or the back. It's inside.... The pain isn't the same [as earlier in the seaon], but it might be related."

Heyward's homer off left-hander Jon Niese turned a tie game into a 6-3 Braves lead on the way to a badly needed win in the opener of a nine-game trip. It was only the sixth win in 14 games and kept them in the wild-card lead, one game ahead of San Diego and three ahead of hard-charging Colorado, pending the outcomes of the Padres' and Rockies' late games.

"A come-from-behind win is always good," said Cox, who was thrown out of the game in the second inning for arguing balls and strikes, extending his own major league record to 158 ejections. "You never want to get three runs down, but we did tonight real quick. And we came right back. They booted one ball and we started hitting the heck out of the ball after that.

"Tommy bent a little bit, but he didn't break. He kept firing and got them out. And of course when you bring in [relievers Jonny] Venters and Saito and [Billy] Wagner, generally it's shutout innings, it has been almost all year long."

Hanson (10-11) withstood a rough second inning during an otherwise strong six-inning performance that earned him only his second win in 14 starts. He has pitched well during that stretch, but received terrible run support.

The right-hander was charged with four runs and five hits Friday, including three runs and four hits in a second inning that gave the Mets a 3-0 lead. The only other hit against him was Lucas Duda's career-first homer in the fourth inning.

"It was one of those days where I didn't have my best stuff and just kind of went out there and battled, and did the best I could to keep us in the game," Hanson said. "I had the bad inning, then the 2-0 pitch to Duda that hurt me. But other than that, I just tried to battle through it, and it worked out, we got the win."

Hanson said the players-only meeting, where Chipper Jones talked about staying focused, seemed to help the team.

"We've got a pretty close team and there's a bunch of great guys," he said. "We're always pulling for each other, and I think that meeting was good that we had today. It was just a good reminder to go out there, take it one pitch at a time, take it one at-bat at a time, whatever position you're in.

"It was good to have that meeting, and it worked out for us today. Hopefully we can keep it going.

Trailing 3-0, Derrek Lee hit a leadoff single in the fourth inning, and Wright misplayed a Matt Diaz grounder with one out. There were two out when Melky Cabrera singled to drive in the Braves' first run.

Hanson drew a walk to load the bases before hot-hitting Infante doubled down the third-base line to drive in two runs.

Heyward followed with his bullet of a three-run homer.

The McDonough phenom has hit .412  in his past 25 games with 13 extra-base hits and 18 RBIs. In his past five games against the Mets, he's 11-for-22 with three doubles, two homers and 10 RBIs.

Hanson was 1-6 despite a 2.77 ERA in his past 13 starts before Friday. The Braves had scored barely 2.4 runs per nine innings he pitched in that span.

In his past six road starts, Hanson was 0-4 with a 2.43 ERA. The Braves had scored one or no runs while he was in four of those games and two while he was in the others.