No progress
Mets lose 4th straight to hinder wild-card hopes
Posted: Saturday September 26, 1998 07:05 PM
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The Braves squandered their own bases-loaded opportunity against Leiter (17-6) in the fourth. Leiter left the game in the sixth AP |
ATLANTA (AP) -- When they could least afford it, the New York Mets find
themselves in a full-scale slump.
Andruw
Jones' two-run double highlighted a three-run sixth inning and the Atlanta Braves further
damaged New York's wild-card hopes with a 4-0 victory Saturday, the Mets'
fourth straight loss.
New York began the next-to-last day of the regular season in a
three-way tie for the final NL playoff spot, joined by the equally reeling
Chicago Cubs and the
surging San Francisco
Giants. The Cubs played at Houston, while the Giants were at
Colorado.
Having already secured home field advantage throughout the league
playoffs, Atlanta took care of another piece of business: winning its 105th
game to set a franchise record.
The Braves became the 12th NL team this century to win at least 105
games. The last was the 1986 Mets, who went 108-54 en route to a World
Series championship.
But this isn't 1986. The current New York team stranded 12 runners in
a 6-5 loss Friday night, twice leaving the bases loaded. The trend
continued Saturday as Tom Glavine and
four relievers combined to shut down the Mets.
The Mets wasted their best scoring chance in the fifth, with Piazza at the plate AP | |
Glavine, making a bid for his second Cy Young Award, helped his
chances by throwing five scoreless innings in his final tuneup for the
postseason. He left with the game scoreless and finished the season
20-6.
Denny
Neagle (16-11) won in his first regular-season relief appearance since
October 3, 1993. He pitched two perfect innings with three strikeouts.
After Kevin
Millwood, Norm Charlton
and Kerry Ligtenberg worked the final two outs.
The Mets left two runners on base in both the second and third
innings, the latter when Mike Piazza --
who has stranded 11 runners in the first two games of the series -- fanned
for the third out. New York wasted its best scoring chance in the fifth,
again with Piazza at the plate.
Pitcher Al
Leiter hit a one-out double and Tony Phillips
followed with a walk. After Edgardo
Alfonzo struck out, John Olerud
lined a single to left. But the slow-running Leiter had to hold a third,
leaving the bases loaded for Piazza, who lined out to right on the first
pitch to end the inning.
The Braves didn't have a runner until the fourth, when they squandered
their own bases-loaded opportunity against Leiter (17-6). But they knocked
out the Mets starter in the sixth.
Walt
Weiss led off with a double and Gerald
Williams walked. Chipper Jones
blooped an RBI single to center, sending Williams to third. After Andres
Galarraga walked to load the bases and Javy Lopez struck
out, Andruw Jones lined a double into the left-field corner, giving the
Braves a three-run cushion.
Andruw Jones has 90 RBIs, joining Galarraga (120), Lopez (106) and
Chipper Jones (105) to give Atlanta four players with 90 or more RBIs for
the first time since 1973. Lopez added a solo homer in the eighth
off Greg
McMichael.
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