Field Level Media
Jun 17, 2019
Ronald Acuna Jr. continued his torrid offensive pace with three more hits, including a leadoff home run, and the Atlanta Braves defeated the visiting New York Mets 12-3 on Monday.
Acuna was 3-for-5 with his 17th homer and two RBIs and extended his hitting streak to nine games, matching his season-best. Acuna, who was 4-for-5 on Sunday, is hitting .409 (18-for-44) with three homers during the streak. He lifted his batting average to .301.
Brian McCann and Ozzie Albies also had three hits and struck back-to-back homers in the eighth inning. McCann hit a two-run shot, his seventh, and Albies followed with his 11th.
Atlanta has won 10 of its last 11 games. The Mets have lost four of their last five.
Mike Soroka (8-1) pitched six innings and allowed three runs on six hits and one walk. He struck out a season-low two batters. He improved to 3-0 with a 1.96 ERA in three career starts against New York.
Zack Wheeler (5-5) threw six innings and allowed five runs, four earned, on 10 hits and two walks. He struck out four. Wheeler has allowed 14 runs, nine earned, in his last two starts.
The Braves added a run on a fielding error by first baseman Pete Alonso and took a 2-0 lead in the first.
The Mets scored a run in the third on Alonso's RBI single and tied it in the fifth when Wheeler blooped an RBI single into center field.
The Braves took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth with three runs. Nick Markakis dropped an opposite-field single into left field to bring home two runs, and scored on an Albies single.
New York's Robinson Cano homered to right-center, his fourth, to cut Atlanta's lead to 5-3 in the sixth. The hit was the 2,513th for Cano and tied him with Jimmy Ryan for 100th place on the all-time career hit list.
The game was interrupted for 15 minutes by a brief shower in the top of the sixth inning.
The Braves put the game away with four in the seventh. Albies had a two-run single, Acuna drove in a run and Freddie Freeman walked with the bases loaded.
--Field Level Media