Sunday, April 8, 2012

How Sweep It Is

The Mets took care of business this afternoon, again besting the Braves by a 7-5 score.

Not many people, and I include myself in that group, figured the Mets would start the season and sweep a series from a division rival.  Especially a rival like Atlanta, a team that always has a knack for inflicting damage to the Mets.

The key for the entire series was pitching and it held true yet again today.  Jon Niese started for the Mets and was absolutely fantastic.  Yes, he'll get marked for letting up four runs, but those runs were at the end of his day and he was plagued by an error behind him.  Niese took a no hitter into the 7th inning and at one point, retired 14 straight Braves.  The man was paid the other day and he gave upper management a sturdy thank you with today's outing.

The hitting came around late in the game, but around it did come.  David Wright picked up another RBI, Daniel Murphy collected two more doubles, and Ruben Tejada looked very comfortable in the leadoff spot day as he picked up four hits.  This is a long, deep lineup and it will wear out opposing teams.  They may be able to get outs early in the game but the third and fourth time through the batting order is tough for teams.  The Mets have to many good hitters to not score often.

The one player who still needs to get going is Ike Davis.  Only three games in, so not to worried, but he has yet to record a base hit and has looked over-matched at the plate, especially against any breaking balls.

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