The Atlanta Braves offensive showed up to play once more, but they were unable to outslug their opponents on this occasion. On the 50th anniversary of Henry Aaron’s 715th home run, the New York Mets prevailed 8–7 thanks to two home runs and five RBIs from Brandon Nimmo.
Atlanta quickly found some offense in this game after both teams traded scoreless innings for the first several innings (including this brilliant strike ’em out/throw ’em out move by the Braves in the first inning). Ronald Acuña Jr. and Jarred Kelenic came first.
began the third inning with walks, and Ozzie Albies took advantage of both of them with a deep double to make the score 2-0. It was Marcell Ozuna’s responsibility to see that Ozzie returned home after two outs. When he was finished, Ozuna hit a home run to the seats in left center, making it a four-run inning for the Braves. As it turned out, Ozuna would be joining Ozzie at home plate.
After the Braves bullied Julio Teheran out of the game, you could have been forgiven for believing that they would go into cruise control. Rather, the fourth and fifth innings saw the Mets really heat up. Two one-out walks in the opening
After New York scored four runs in the fourth inning thanks to two outs, they were able to tie the game at four runs apiece when Brandon Nimmo successfully hit an 85 mph changeup from Charlie Morton that was squarely in the strike zone. To put it simply, Nimmo blasted a meatball for his first season-opening hit.
However, Atlanta quickly recovered in the sixth inning. Orlando Arcia opened the sixth inning with a single, and Travis d’Arnaud followed with a line drive to right field that narrowly escaped Starling Marte’s glove. To put the Braves back ahead, Arcia was able to drive all the way around the basepaths from first base to home plate. Atlanta was ahead at that point, but they could have had more, and they regretfully ended up falling down in order from that point on.
In the very next frame, Brandon Nimmo received his second hanger of the evening to feast upon, which only made him regret it more. Nimmo made no mistakes with it, and even though it was ten miles per hour quicker than A.J. Minter’s, it was still in the middle of the zone. In this game, the Mets were not going to go away easily, and Nimmo in particular wasn’t finished yet.
Pierce Johnson recorded the first two outs in the eighth inning, but he then got into some serious difficulties, making the inning a crucial one. Brett Baty reached scoring position thanks to a wild pitch, but it didn’t matter since DJ Stewart smashed a single to center to give New York the lead for the first time during the evening. After that, New York responded with a single, and Brandon Nimmo was the one to welcome Jesse Chavez to the game with an RBI single that put New York ahead 8–5. When it happened, Nimmo was 4–4 with two home runs and five RBIs, and he was a lock to win any player of the game accolades that were given out.
