Nolan McLean, Mets offense combine to power convincing win over Braves

ATLANTA — It is hard to imagine a better remedy for the Mets following Thursday's head-scratching loss to the Nationals than what they doctored up in Friday's series opener in Atlanta.

After going 5⅓ innings without a hit against the Nationals bullpen on Thursday, the Mets matched a season-high 21 hits, including at least one in each of the first eight innings on Friday night.

One day after Sean Manaea faltered in the top of the fifth inning and a three-run lead capsized, Nolan McLean, pitching against his hometown team and in front of the 1995 Braves trifecta of Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, turned in one of the Mets' best starts in the last two months.

McLean and the Mets offense worked in tandem. The offense poured on the pressure against the Braves and McLean tossed clean innings to help keep the bats fired up.

The result proved to be the perfect cure for an indefensible series loss to begin the week. The Mets buried the Braves in a 12-7 victory in front of a sold-out crowd of 40,076 fans on Friday night at Truist Park.

"I think baseball is a game of momentum and when are pitchers are going out there and getting quick outs and doing what (McLean) did tonight, I think it helps our offense," Brett Baty said. "Less time on defense, more time in the dugout."

The performances of McLean and the offense were enough to weather Reed Garrett and Ryan Helsley giving up a combined five earned runs between the eighth and ninth innings.

The Mets have now won four of their last six games, improving to 68-60. They picked up a game on the Phillies and now trail by six in the NL East after Philadelphia fell to the Nationals.

Brett Baty, Cedric Mullins lead Mets' offensive explosion

It was one of the Mets' most complete offensive performances of the season. Consider:

• Every member of the Mets' starting lineup had collected a hit by the end of the fourth inning against Braves left-handed starter Joey Wentz and Erick Fedde.
• Five different Mets players (Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Brett Baty, Tyrone Taylor and Cedric Mullins) collected three hits. Baty's four hits were a team- and career-high. He scored three runs.
• The Mets collected eight extra-base hits. Cedric Mullins, who supplied a go-ahead two-run triple in the third inning, finished a home run shy of the cycle.
• Within those extra-base hits, Juan Soto tagged his 32nd home run of the season — an opposite-field two-run shot off the left-field foul pole — to put the Mets up 9-2 in the seventh. He finished with a team-high four RBI.

"We had some really good at-bats, one through nine, especially against the starter," Carlos Mendoza said. "We forced him up in the zone. At the beginning we chased a little bit and then just continue to add on."

One of the most encouraging signs for the Mets offense was coming through against a southpaw. The Mets' .231 average against lefties is 19th in MLB, but they collected nine hits, two walks and six runs off Wentz in 3⅓ innings.

Nolan McLean continues to dominate

Nolan McLean can now count himself as one of the Mets' exceptions to a painstaking stretch of their starting rotation not providing length.

Since June 7, David Peterson had been the lone Mets starting pitcher to complete six innings. In his second start of his major league career, McLean provided that badly-needed lift against the Braves.

McLean completed seven innings, striking out seven batters and scattering four hits while not issuing any walks.

"I'm just going out there trying to win. Every batter I face, I'm trying to get him out," McLean said. "I happened to go seven tonight. Obviously last week was five and some change and I wanted to be better."

The lone Braves runs off McLean came between the third and fourth innings. In the third, Nacho Alvarez Jr. shot a double down the left-field line and scored on a Jurickson Profar RBI single. He gave up a solo home run to Ronald Acuña Jr. in the fourth.

The only other Braves baserunner through the first six innings came when McLean slipped and plunked Profar. After the home run to Acuña, McLean sent down the next 11 batters in order before giving up a two-out single to Drake Baldwin in the seventh.

Despite some shaky command early with his sweeper and curveball, McLean was able to turn to lean on his fastball, sinker and cutter to get back in the zone.

"I think it's all about being able to adjust, try to find a feel that gets it back in the zone and then being able to rely on other pitches, as well," McLean said. "And trusting your catcher to call the game to set up the other pitches to get outs, as well."

Francisco Lindor leads dazzling defensive effort

The emotion came bursting to the surface for Lindor in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The usually-stoic Mets shortstop went full extension on a dive up the middle, gloved a sharp ground ball from Marcell Ozuna and popped to his feet to convert the out. As Alonso gloved the throw, Lindor let out a scream.

With McLean dialed in and producing ground balls, the Mets defense provided support behind him.

In the bottom of the third inning with Profar on first base, McLean got Matt Olson to swing over a curveball and Hayden Senger caught the Braves outfielder stealing. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Mark Vientos dove to his right to smother a shot by Nacho Alvarez Jr.

"Anytime guys like that are making plays behind me, it fires me up and I want to go out there and just compete even harder for them," McLean said. "I know they're putting their bodies on the line for me to just get one out. It's awesome to see."

And McLean helped his own cause with a pair of slick plays in front of the mound to throw out Baldwin and Profar in the second and sixth innings, respectively.

The strong defensive game came after a catcher's interference by Luis Torrens led to two Nationals runs in Wednesday's loss and a miscommunication on a sacrifice bunt opened the door in another defeat on Thursday.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Nolan McLean, Mets offense combine to power convincing win over Braves