ATLANTA — Nothing came easy for the Mets through the first 10 games of the season, but a resounding win over the Atlanta Braves should send them back to New York riding high.
The Mets took their first series of the year from their NL East rivals on Thursday afternoon, routing the Braves ,16-4, at Truist Park.
DJ Stewart hit his second home run in the series, Jeff McNeil went 2-for-3 with three RBI and two runs scored, Pete Alonso went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and Francisco Alvarez went 2-for-5 and drove in two runs. Each member of the starting lineup recorded a hit.
Tyrone Taylor pinch-hit a grand slam off Luis Guillorme, a former Mets infielder who was tasked with saving the Braves’ bullpen in the bottom of the ninth.
Left-hander Jose Quintana (1-1) limited the Braves to only a walk and a hit before the fifth inning when Atlanta plated three runs to cut the Mets’ lead to 7-3. He threw 100 pitches over 5 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits in total, walking two and striking out four.
It wasn’t Quintana’s most efficient start, but he kept one of baseball’s best lineups off balance throughout, giving the Mets (5-7) a chance to win.
It was his first win over the Braves in six tries, snapping a streak of five straight losses at the hands of Atlanta (7-4).
Former Mets farmhand Allan Winans (0-1) got the better of the team that drafted him in a win last season, but the Mets jumped on him right away this time out, scoring seven runs over the first three innings. The damage on the right-hander was seven runs (six earned) on eight hits, two walks and a strikeout over five innings.
The big inning came in the fourth. With the Mets up 3-0 and Alonso on second with one out, Winans gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Alvarez and McNeil to make it 5-0. Stewart took a 2-1 changeup over the fence to give the Mets a 7-0 lead.
After Atlanta scored three times in the fifth, the Mets continued to hammer away at the Braves’ bullpen. Starling Marte singled off left-hander Dylan Lee, then stole second and reached third on an error by third baseman Austin Riley. Francisco Lindor also reached on that error and Alonso walked to load the bases. With one out, Marte scored on Alvarez’s RBI groundout.
McNeil then cleared the bases with his second double of the day and the Mets went up, 10-3.
They scored two more on left-hander Tyler Matzek in the eighth.
Meanwhile, Mets right-hander Drew Smith held the Braves scoreless over 1 2/3 innings. Right-hander Tyler Jay, a first-round pick of the Minnesota Twins in 2015 who was signed last summer out of the independent Frontier League, made his long-awaited big league debut in the bottom of the eighth, finishing the game for the visitors.
The game was long out of hand by the time Guillorme took the mound. Taylor’s grand slam put the exclamation point on a 4-2 road trip for the Mets.
