New York Mets lose first game of the season to Atlanta Braves

The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves by the score of 9-3 on Tuesday night. It was the first loss out of five games this year to the Braves. Johan Santana started for the Mets and had the shortest outing of his career. Daniel Murphy, David Wright and Kirk Nieuwenhuis each had two hits. Delgado pitched well for the Braves and Matt Diaz and Freddie Freeman each had a couple of hits.

Santana pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up four hits and six runs with four of them being earned. He walked one and didn’t strike out a batter. Miguel Batista pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up a walk and he had two strikeouts, Ramon Ramirez pitched two innings giving up two hits and two runs with a walk and two strikeouts and Manny Acosta pitched three innings giving up three hits and one run with one walk and two strikeouts. Delgado picked up his second win of the season pitching 5 1/3 innings giving up seven hits and three runs with three walks and five strikeouts. The bullpen pitched 3 2/3 innings giving up a couple of hits and no runs or no walks with four strikeouts.

Murphy had two hits and an RBI, Wright had two hits and Ike Davis drew a walk. Jason Bay had a hit, Josh Thole had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk and Nieuwenhuis had two hits. Mike Baxter had a hit and an RBI. Bay had a double and the Mets were 3-11 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. Bay and Davis each committed an error.

Heyward had a hit, RBI and drew a walk, Chipper Jones had an RBI and drew a walk and Brian McCann had a hit and drew a walk. Dan Uggla drew a walk, Diaz had two hits and an RBI and Freeman had two hits and two RBI. Pastornicky had a hit and two RBI, Juan Francisco had a hit and an RBI and Jack Wilson had a hit. Freeman, Pastornicky and McCann each had a double. Francisco hit a homerun and the Braves were 4-10 with runners in scoring position. They left six men on base and Heyward and Bourn each had a stolen base. Jones had a throwing error.

Jones hit a sacrifice fly in the first to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. In the second Freeman hit an RBI double, Pastornicky had a two run double, Delgado had a sac bunt that scored a run and Heyward had an RBI single. It was 6-0 Braves until Thole had an RBI single in the fourth inning to make it 6-1. Baxter hit an RBI single to make it 6-2. In the fifth Diaz had a sacrifice fly and Freeman had an RBI single and it was 8-2 Braves. Murphy hit an RBI single in the sixth to make it 8-3 and Francisco hit a solo homerun in the eighth to make it 9-3.

The two teams will play the rubber game of the three game series on Wednesday afternoon. The Mets record fell to 7-4 and the Braves improved their record to 6-5.