The Braves now have 50 wins this season.
In what lived up to the billing of an ace vs. ace showdown between Aaron Harang and Bartolo Colon, the Braves got the better of the Mets in a 3-1 win on Thursday night to halt their four-game losing skid.
All three of the Braves' runs came early. Freddie Freeman doubled home Andrelton Simmons in the first inning, and Jason Heyward plated Freeman with a bloop single to left to make the score 2-0. In the third inning, Justin Upton drove home Simmons on a 6-4-3 double play.
The Mets' lone run came in the third as David Wright lined a ball past Simmons and into left field, scoring Eric Young Jr. Harang, as he has seemingly done all season long, found a way to wiggle out of trouble as he got Lucas Duda to fly out to left and Travis d'Arnaud to ground out to end the inning.
Not a whole lot happened over the middle innings. Things got tense in the bottom of the eighth as the Mets put two runners on with just one out, but Jordan Walden got Juan Lagares to pop out in foul territory, and then Craig Kimbrel struck out Kirk Nieuwenhuis.
Kimbrel went 1-2-3 in the ninth to improve the Braves to 50-42 on the season. The Nats lost, so we're basically back in a virtual tie atop the East.
The Braves will kick off their final series of the first half tomorrow afternoon in Chicago. First pitch is 4:05 p.m. ET.