The defending World Series Champion Atlanta Braves have looked up in the NL East standings all season long, but with a hard fought 10-9 victory over the Oakland Athletics Tuesday night (Wednesday morning in Atlanta), the Braves now sit tied for first in the NL East with the NY Mets with both teams at 85-51.
The Braves won their fifth straight with the win over Oakland, while earlier in the evening a struggling Mets squad dropped its third in a row, and fifth in the last ten to relinquish its hold atop the NL East for the first time since April 2.
The Braves had to fight hard to win its fifth straight as after jumping ahead of the A’s early in the ballgame, Oakland would not give in and tied the game 9-9 after five innings.
After not allowing an earned run in his previous two outings, starting pitcher Kyle Wright (17-5) was hit hard and surrendered eight of the A’s nine runs on the evening, leaving after only four innings.
The Braves would retake the lead in the sixth when Austin Riley would send a sacrifice fly ball to right field to score Ronald Acuña Jr, for the final run of the game.
From there the Braves bullpen shutdown Oakland with closer Kenley Jansen recording his MLB best 32nd save of the season with a perfect ninth to seal the victory.
It has been a long climb up the division for the Braves to claim a share of the lead, as they once were behind the Mets by as many as 10.5 games back in early June.
The Mets and Braves will play one final series in Atlanta on Sept 30 – Oct 2.
