The Braves took a 7-4 lead in the eighth inning Sunday at Turner Field and the 11-game home skid seemed to be near an end.
It would keep the Braves from posting the first 12-game home skid in franchise history since at least 1914.
But then bullpen came into play as it has over and over in these losing streaks.
Daniel Murphy hit a game-tying three-run homer with two out in the ninth inning for the Mets off Braves rookie Ryan Kelly.
And then the Mets won 10-7 with three two-out runs in the 10th, the first on an error by third baseman Hector Olivera and the last two on bases-loaded walks by relievers Edwin Jackson and Danny Burawa.
The Braves now have to sit a day and think about this skid before the Toronto Blue Jays come to Turner Field on Tuesday night to start a three-game series.
Johnson happy with Mets
Kelly Johnson lives in Atlanta and didn’t want to be traded from the Braves even though the team had begun to falter, losing eight of 11 games before a July 24 deal sent him and third baseman Juan Uribe to the Mets for two minor league pitchers.
But it didn’t take long for Johnson to realize he’d landed in a good situation, with a Mets team that was making moves to add to an already talented roster.
“It took all of one day – getting into New York, meeting everybody, seeing what everybody’s about, I realized real quick how good a group they had here,” Johnson said before Sunday’s series finale between the surging, division-leading Mets and the skidding Braves. “Obviously the pitching was good, but, like, the guys that were already here … a lot’s made out of (trades for) Juan, me, Cespy (Yoenis Cespedes) – Cespy more than anything – but the guys who were already here, really just getting that group on the field and healthy has been just as big.”
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