Kyle Wright unspectacular but effective as Braves beat Mets

Wright allowed five runs in 2-2/3 innings during his first start, but he felt there was enough on which to build. While Sunday wasn’t smooth sailing, Wright managed to keep the Mets off the board. New York stranded nine base runners across the first four innings.

“Definitely need to keep the base runners down,” Wright said. “That’s something I’ll work on for my next start. But I felt really good just being able to manage it. I feel like I took that from my last start and took it into this one. I was able to do a better job of limiting damage and finding a way to get strikeouts, outs when I got in jams.”

The Mets loaded the bases on 18 pitches to begin the first. Wright induced an infield popup before Robinson Cano grounded into a double play. A one-out walk and single positioned the Mets again in the second, but Wright retired Tomas Nido on a grounder and struck out Brandon Nimmo.

Jeff McNeil doubled to open the third, though it easily could’ve been a charged error to Ronald Acuna, who misplayed the ball in center. Wright struck out the struggling Pete Alonso before walking Michael Conforto, putting himself into another jam.

He responded by striking out Cano and J.D. Davis. The Braves scored twice in the bottom of the inning to give Wright a lead.

Continuing an early season trend, a Braves starter couldn’t get through the fourth. Wright allowed hits to two of the three batters he faced to open the frame, prompting the Braves to make a change. Tyler Matzek, who’s become an unexpected contributor, finished the inning with a groundout and strikeout.

“Obviously I want to go deep in the game and save the bullpen as many innings as I can,” Wright said. “I put myself in jams those first two innings, and that continued to prepare me for that next inning. I felt really good today. I never felt like I was out of it. I always felt like I was one pitch away from getting out of it.”

Wright allowed five hits and walked five over his 3-1/3 innings. His five strikeouts helped the case, but like Toussaint on Saturday, he was living on the edge all afternoon, preventing him from pitching deeper into the game.

“He kept pitching, never gave in,” manager Brian Snitker said. “We made some good plays. He made some big pitches. It was an improvement over the last time, I’ll say that. Hopefully next time he’s a little more settled in. To his credit, he never caved, which is a great trait to have. As I say, this is a young kid with great stuff who is learning.”

Mike Soroka and Max Fried are the only Braves starters to complete five innings this season. In the six games started by other pitchers, the starter hasn’t gone beyond the fourth inning. While Toussaint and Wright did well enough to keep the team in it, the Braves will need their starters to go deeper, especially as rosters begin reducing later this week.

For now, the Braves can be satisfied with Toussaint’s and Wright’s messy but successful combined effort: 7-1/3 innings, no runs, eight hits, seven walks and 10 strikeouts.

“They should get better,” Snitker said. “They should improve on that. They all had the quicken ramp up. We’re not making excuses, it’s the reality. It’s quick, what we had to put your young pitchers through, who hadn’t been out there. ... It was encouraging. I’m very encouraged by both those guys.”

Notes from Sunday:

⋅ The Braves scored twice against Mets rookie David Peterson in the third. Adam Duvall singled and Austin Riley doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Adeiny Hechavarria grounded to short, and after Duvall flirted with running home, Amed Rosario threw to the plate, allowing Duvall to retreat back to third. All runners were safe, loading the bases with none out.

Peterson walked Acuna on four pitches to score the first run. Freddie Freeman’s grounder scored another, but Peterson did a nice job limiting the damage. The Braves would add another another two insurance runs throughout the day.

⋅ One of those came when third baseman Johan Camargo homered for the first time this season. Camargo has slumped to start the season: His solo shot was his fourth hit in 21 at-bats.

⋅ After homering and doubling Saturday, Acuna doubled on Sunday. The Braves’ star lead-off man is slowly regaining form.

⋅ While the rotation is rocky, the bullpen has lived up to its billing. The Braves’ relief group owns an ERA just over 3.00 across the first 10 games. “It’s been really, really good,” Snitker said. “We’ve put a lot on them, too. It hasn’t been an easy ride. It’s been all hands on deck pretty much the whole time. They’ve responded and been better than you could ever expect. Thank God, because we’ve sure needed them.”

Duvall added: “To have a bullpen that can come in and lock a game down is very important, especially during the playoffs. Guys just seem to be better and better. Watching them come in, they come in, get ahead of guys and they’ve got some wipe-out stuff. It’s good to have confidence in those guys. It’s fun to watch.”

The bullpen will be getting further reinforcements shortly: left-hander Will Smith will face hitters on Monday for the first time. He missed camp and the beginning of the season due to COVID-19. Smith, an All-Star last season, will be a tremendous add for the unit.

⋅ The Braves will go for a four-game sweep Monday. It will be a rematch between aces Mike Soroka and Jacob deGrom. The Braves have already built a four-game cushion over the Mets through 10 games.

“We’re going into each series wanting to win, and we won this series,” Snitker said. “Tomorrow is going to be a really tough draw (against deGrom), but I like who we have on the mound too (Soroka). It’d be great (to sweep). All these games are important. Tomorrow is right there with the rest of them.”