Two Georgia boys had a big night Tuesday at Turner Field, but did it at the expense of the Braves.
Mets prospect Zack Wheeler pitched six scoreless innings to win his major league debut, and Marlon Byrd had three hits in a 6-1 win against the Braves that gave New York a sweep of the day-night doubleheader.
The Braves went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position in the nightcap, and after Paul Maholm (7-6) gave up a two-run homer in the seventh inning, the Mets blew the game open with four runs against Anthony Varvaro in an ugly eighth.
“We had a couple of chances; we didn’t cash in,” said shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who had two of the Braves seven hits in the second game, and two of their seven walks. “(Wheeler) had a little more command issues, but unfortunately we couldn’t capitalize.”
It was the third game played in its entirety in a 24-hour span for the teams, after the Braves won 2-1 in a series opener delayed 3 hours and 43 minutes before the first pitch. That game started at 10:53 p.m. Monday, and Tuesday’s doubleheader nightcap ended at 10:35.
The teams play two more games Wednesday and Thursday in a series that went from four games to five after a May 4 rainout was bumped to Tuesday.
“Just a rough last 24 hours,” said Braves center fielder, B.J. Upton, who made the last out in three innings with runners in scoring position in the 6-1 loss. “We fought all we could the first game, just had a disappointing ending in the second game.”
The Braves had lost only three of their past 19 home games before Tuesday, and won 16 of 20 against the Mets before the doubleheader sweep.
Byrd, a graduate of Sprayberry High who attended Georgia Tech, had five hits in the two wins for the Mets.
Wheeler, 23, was born in Smyrna and attended East Paulding High. He didn’t disappoint in his much-anticipated debut on Georgia soil. The former first-round pick issued five walks but allowed only four hits and had seven strikeouts, keeping the Braves off-balance with a mix of upper-90 mph fastballs, breaking pitches and change-ups.
“It was definitely an experience,” said Wheeler, who was cheered loudly and frequently by friends and family members seated behind the Mets dugout. “I had some jitters going at first. Then I settled down a little bit, probably the fourth or fifth inning. I just found a rhythm and I was able to throw my pitches for strikes. That definitely helped me out.”
So did the Braves’ continued struggles with runners in scoring position. They started the day batting .228 in those situations, tied with Houston for fourth-lowest in the majors.
The Braves couldn’t get any of their many baserunners across the plate until Justin Upton hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh to trim the deficit to 2-1. They had a chance to tie or take the lead, but B.J. Upton grounded out with two on to end the inning after an intentional walk for Freddie Freeman.
Freeman walked two other times with first base open and a runner in scoring position and two outs, and B.J. Upton grounded out and flied out in those chances. He is a majors-worst 0-for-28 with runners in scoring position and two outs.
The day’s nadir for the Braves was reached in the eighth inning, when Varvaro made an errant pickoff throw to second base and the ball rolled under the glove of center fielder B.J. Upton, allowing the runner to score.
“That’s just a tough inning,” Upton said.
Gonzalez said the fact that the Braves spent so much time at the ballpark Tuesday didn’t make the losses any harder or easier to swallow.
“You hate losing games and you hate losing games where you make mistakes,” Gonzalez said. “But it doesn’t matter how long you’re here for. That’s the way it goes. We’ve got two more games against these guys. We always talk about winning series. We win the next two and we win the series. That’s what we’ve got to go on for tomorrow.”
Maholm was 3-0 with no runs allowed in his past three starts against the Mets before Tuesday, when he gave up nine hits in seven innings, including a two-run homer by Anthony Recker in the seventh. The nine hits were two fewer than Maholm allowed in 21 1/3 innings over his past three starts against the Mets.
Recker homered on a 3-1 slider, and Maholm complained about the umpiring in that and other instances.
“I struck him out,” the veteran lefty said. “Three of the pitches were strikes and then I’ve got to throw a 3-1, obviously I didn’t make a good pitch but you go look at it, there’s three pitches that are strikes, and it sucks. And he took advantage of getting in a hitter’s count.”
The Braves had Wheeler on the ropes several times, but the slender right-hander worked out of every jam.
After giving up a leadoff walk (and stolen base) to Simmons to start the first inning, Wheeler got a strikeout and two ground outs. After Dan Uggla’s one-out double in the second, he got two more strikeouts.
Simmons drew another leadoff walk in the third, and Jason Heyward followed with an infield pop-up. Justin Upton struck out, and Simmons stole second on the third strike and went to third on a catcher’s throwing error on the play. He was left there when B.J. Upton flied out to end the inning.
Simmons reached for the third time leading off an inning when he singled in the fifth, and Wheeler induced a double-play grounder by Heyward. The Braves had two on with one out again in the sixth after a single and a walk, and Wheeler struck out and got Chris Johnson on a pop-up.
All those missed opportunities looked more glaring an inning later when Recker homered for a 2-0 lead.
Through the first six scoreless innings, the most exciting moment was a fifth-inning outfield collision of the Upton brothers. Omar Quintanilla hit a two-out fly ball to left-center, and both Uptons raced over. Center fielder B.J. called for it, but younger brother Justin kept coming from left field and collided with him after the catch, sending B.J. sprawling.
The impact of the collision didn’t appear severe, but when B.J. stayed on the ground for several seconds, on his back. Then he popped up and gave Justin what appeared to be a playful shove before the two trotted to the dugout.
