Late-innings rallies and thrilling walk-off wins are what this Braves team likes to do most, and they did it again Tuesday.
Johan Camargo hit a first-pitch homer with one out in the ninth inning to complete a big rally and give the Braves a 7-6 win over the Mets, their fifth walk-off win of the season and their second in as many days against the Mets.
Camargo scorched a line-drive off Gerson Bautista that whistled over the top of the right-field fence for the game-ending homer, after Charlie Culberson hit a walk-off homer in the first game of Monday’s doubleheader.
The Braves’ chances of mounting another of what has become their trademark comebacks increased significantly when Mets starter Steven Matz left after three innings due to discomfort in the middle finger of his pitching hand.
And though it took a while, the Braves indeed rallied against the bullpen, the offense awakening to overcome a big deficit that their own starter Anibal Sanchez put them in and giving the Braves their eighth last at-bat win this year.
Asdrubal Cabrera had two home runs and Adrian Gonzalez also homered for the Mets as they built a 6-2 lead against a Braves team that is paying $21.8 million of Gonzalez’s salary this season.
But the Braves scored a run in the seventh on a two-out single from Freddie Freeman and RBI double from Nick Markakis, then got three runs to tie in the eighth inning against reliever Jacob Rhame, with Ender Inciarte’s two-run triple the big blow.
The Braves started the eighth with three consecutive singles from Camargo, Charlie Culberson and Dansby Swanson, then saw Preston Tucker drive in a run with a fielder’s choice grounder as Tucker hustled to beat the relay to first base and avoid the double play. Inciarte followed with his drive to the right-center gap that scored two to tie.
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Braves reliever Dan Winkler, who has been terrific all season, got into and out of a jam in the ninth inning. After giving up a hit and hitting a batter to start the inning, Winkler retired the next three including a strikeout of Michael Conforto with two runners in scoring position to end the inning.
Sanchez, who was activated from the disabled list Tuesday after missing six weeks recovering from a hamstring injury, gave up five hits, four runs and two walks in four innings including Cabrera’s two-run homer in the third inning and Gonzalez’s leadoff homer in the fourth that pushed the lead to 4-0.
Matz left the game with discomfort in the middle finger of his left (pitching) hand after trying to warm up before the start of the fourth inning. He allowed just one hit and two walks (one intentional) in three scoreless innings and got no decision to remain 4-0 with a 2.75 ERA in seven career starts against the Braves.
The Braves found reliever Paul Sewald much more to their liking and scored two runs against him in the fourth inning when they got doubles from Tyler Flowers and Swanson, an RBI single from Culberson and a passed ball that let in a run and cut the lead to 4-2.
The Mets answered in the fifth with a leadoff homer from Cabrera off Matt Wisler and added a run in the sixth on Brandon Nimmo’s two-out RBI double off Wisler to push the lead back to four runs, 6-2. But Wisler settled in and retired the last seven batters in his four-inning relief stint.
