NEW YORK — As they close in on the end of their longest road trip of the season, the Atlanta Braves have been making themselves right at home at Citi Field.
That was doubly true Saturday.
Rookie right-hander Allen Winans pitched seven scoreless innings in a 21-3 win against the New York Mets in the afternoon, and Spencer Strider matched the feat in a 6-0 win in the nightcap to complete a doubleheader sweep. Atlanta second baseman Ozzie Albies homered in each game, and the Braves went deep seven times in all Saturday.
“You’ve got to keep your mind in the game and keep focused at all times, otherwise, the game can turn on you real quick,” Albies said. “So that’s what we do, keep going hard.”
The Braves’ 75-41 record is the best in Major League Baseball right now, and Albies’ shot in the nightcap was the team’s 225th home run of the season, which also leads the majors.
In the opener, Albies drove in six runs and shortstop Nicky Lopez added four hits — including his first homer since Sept. 9, 2021 — and five RBIs before tossing a scoreless ninth inning.
Strider (13-4) allowed three hits and struck out six batters just hours after Winans (1-0) struck out nine on the way to his first MLB win. Before Saturday, a starter for the Braves hadn’t gone seven innings since Bryce Elder on July 29.
“It starts with your starting pitching — always, this game’s all about that,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “And when you get two (long) starts and can use three relievers in 18 innings, that’s pretty good.”
Kevin Pillar had a run-scoring single and Marcell Ozuna hit a two-RBI double in support of Strider before Albies hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning.
José Quintana (0-4) gave up four hits in six innings of one-run ball for the Mets in the second game. Quintana, who didn’t make his first appearance of the season until July 20 due to a left rib fracture, is winless in five starts despite a 3.03 ERA.
“I think the momentum of the first one kind of gets negated when you come in here and sit and everybody has to kind of recover and start over,” Strider said. “It’s a blank slate when you play that second one, and that game could have gone either way for a minute with the way Quintana was pitching for them. Our guys came through, as they always do.”
The Mets were shut out for the 13th time this season, including Friday’s 7-0 loss to Atlanta.
The sweep assured the Braves will win the season series with the Mets (52-65) for the sixth year in a row. Atlanta has outscored New York 118-54 in the last 16 meetings between the National League East Division rivals dating to last season.
AP photo by Adam Hunger / Orlando Arcia and Eddie Rosario celebrate the Atlanta Braves’ win in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the host New York Mets.In the opener, Matt Olson had his seventh multihomer game of the season and the 20th of his career. Sean Murphy and Austin Riley also homered for the NL East leaders — Atlanta, seeking its sixth straight division title, is 11 games ahead of the second-place Philadelphia Phillies — who scored eight runs in the ninth inning off Mets infielder Danny Mendick. The 21 runs were the third-highest single-game total in franchise history.
Lopez’s plate appearances Saturday were his first since the Braves acquired him in a trade with the Kansas City Royals on July 30.
“I asked him if he’s ever pitched, and he’s like ‘Yeah, I’ve got a knuckleball,” Snitker said. “That was awesome, too, that he could go out there and do that, so we didn’t have to warm up anybody behind him or anything like that. Very impressive first outing for him.”
Lopez is the third position player in the majors this season to homer and toss a scoreless inning of relief on the mound. It was his second time pitching in the majors, with the first for the Royals on Aug. 13, 2022, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“They hit back-to-back home runs off me,” said Lopez, who surrendered solo shots by Joey Gallo and Cody Bellinger. “Glad this one went a little bit smoother.”
Daniel Vogelbach hit a three-run homer for the Mets in the eighth inning.
“We just didn’t score any runs, other than late in the first game,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “Basically, you’re talking about 18 innings of really being challenged offensively.”
New York’s Denyi Reyes (0-2) allowed five runs in 4 2/3 innings in the first game.
“It’s pretty easy to go do your job when the team puts up 21 for you,” said Winans, who was drafted by the Mets in 2018 before the Braves selected him in the minor league portion of the 2021 Rule 5 draft.
“I think any time you get called to the big leagues, it’s pretty special and it’s pretty cool,” said Winans, who remains friends with several current homegrown Mets. “But getting drafted by those guys, it definitely made me dream about Citi Field. So getting to come here and do it against those guys made it a little bit more special.”
Winans worked out of a bases-loaded jam after walking two batters and hitting another in the first inning.
Atlanta will wrap up an 11-game, 10-day road trip on Sunday night with the finale of the four-game series in New York, and both teams will start right-handers on the mound as Atlanta’s Yonny Chirinos (5-4, 4.83 ERA) opposes Kodai Senga (8-6, 3.24 ERA). Chirinos has an 8.56 ERA in three starts since being claimed off waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays on July 23. Senga, who last pitched Monday, has a 3.06 ERA when pitching on five or more days of rest.