The series that opened at Turner Field on Thursday should be, by any objective evaluation, a mismatch.
The Mets are streaking to the NL East title. The Braves are slinking off to the winter.
But Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said there are stakes beyond the standings. For one thing the Mets have Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson, who were Braves until they were traded in July.
“Bragging rights,” Freeman said, smiling.
That will have to wait at least a day for the Braves. Uribe and Johnson played their parts and right-hander Bartolo Colon dominated as the Mets won 7-2 after rain delayed the first pitch by 140 minutes.
The Mets (79-61) continued to roll after sweeping the second-place Nationals with three comeback victories and going up seven games in the division. The Braves (56-85) won two of three at the Phillies to end a streak of six straight series losses.
Now the Braves are looking to pump the brakes a bit on the Mets’ runaway to their first division title since 2006, the year they ended the Braves’ streak of NL East titles at 11 in a row.
“A lot of people think this is going to be a walkover series but we’ve got a group of guys in there that are going to fight and hopefully put a damper on things,” Freeman said.
The Braves had the man on the mound to do it in the opener but, once again, Shelby Miller pitched well enough to win and didn’t. The Mets scored three runs against Miller (5-14) in the fourth inning and the lead held up.
Miller’s winless starts streak climbed to 21 games in spite of his 3.50 ERA during that span. He extended his career-high losing streak to 13 decisions. Miller is the unluckiest All-Star pitcher, ever, in terms of consecutive starts without a win.
After the latest, he was in no mood to entertain the notion of the Braves playing “spoiler” against contending teams as they finish out the season.
“You are just trying to show up and beat your opponent, whoever that is,” Miller said. “We are not trying to spoil anyone’s season. I don’t even know what that means. I’ve never heard that kind of term, ‘spoil somebody’s season.’”
A luckless play led to Miller’s deficit on Thursday.
Uribe led off the fourth inning with a single and, with two outs, Johnson checked his swing and hit a slow roller along the third-base line. Miller slipped on the wet grass while trying to field the ball, though a clean play probably would not have gotten Johnson at first base anyway.
Kevin Plawecki was the next batter. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez had ordered Plawecki walked with a runner on base in the second inning to get to Colon, who struck out. This time, with two base runners, he had Miller pitch to Plawecki.
Miller got down 2-0 to Plawecki before the catcher ripped a two-run double. Colon followed with a sharp single to center, just his eighth hit of the season, to put the Mets up 3-0.
Miller departed after six inning, assuring his winless streak would continue.
“You know how good he is so you think, ‘Today is the day’,” Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons said. “Today is the day he’s going to get his deserved win. But it’s fortune sometimes. It’s so bad right how.”
Uribe added an RBI single against reliever Andrew McKirahan in the seventh. That was plenty of support for Colon, who held the Braves to two runs over 6 2/3 innings.
Braves second baseman Jace Peterson ended Colon’s league-high scoreless streak at 31 innings with an RBI triple in the seventh inning. Simmons followed with a single to score Peterson. Colon (14-11) retired two batters before Mets reliever Dario Alvarez came in and got Nick Markakis to fly out.
The Braves hit plenty of balls hard against Colon that didn’t fall. Markakis, Peterson, Miller, A.J. Pierzynski and Michael Bourn all smacked line drives that were snagged by outfielders.
Before scoring in the seventh, the Braves couldn’t convert other chances against Colon.
Nick Swisher grounded out to strand two base runners in the first. Simmons was left at first after a one-out single in the second inning, and the same thing happened to Hector Olivera in the third. Pierzynski grounded into a double play to end the sixth.
Colon, 42, won his third decision in his last four starts.
“He’s a smart guy,” Simmons said. “He knows how to pitch. He’s been around. He knows he has to throw strikes so he comes in, pounds the zone, gets a lot of ground balls and gets outs.”
Uribe added a two-run double in the ninth inning against Braves right-hander Ryan Kelly to cap a 3-for-4 night.
