Just push back the fences at Citi Field, already, and make it more challenging for the Mets.
For a night, Yellowstone Park became a bandbox. The ball was jumping, with the Mets as the chief beneficiaries. Last night they parlayed a season-high four home runs — including two by Justin Turner — into an 11-7 victory over the Braves that snapped a five-game losing streak.
The Mets (56-56) just needed a win, never mind the opponent. But it certainly didn’t hurt to regain the game they lost in the wild-card race to Atlanta a night earlier. The Braves still have an eight-game lead on the Mets.
Turner, who hadn’t homered since June 1 against the Pirates, ended a drought of 191 at-bats without a homer by clearing the right field fence against Tommy Hanson (11-7) in the first inning. Turner then hit a two-run blast against Hanson in the fourth that snapped a 5-5 tie, giving the Mets a lead they never relinquished. Jason Bay and Josh Thole also homered.
“Hitting two home runs anywhere is a pretty good accomplishment,” said Turner, who had two career major league homers before last night. “It’s not something that happens to me very often.”
The Mets built a comfortable lead in the seventh, with three runs against Anthony Varvaro and George Sherrill. Scott Hairston and Jose Reyes each had an RBI single in the inning before Turner got his fourth RBI of the game with a ground out.
Jon Niese (11-8) had a third clunker in four starts, but lived to tell. The lefty allowed five earned runs on 10 hits over five innings, departing after 87 pitches. Tim Byrdak, Pedro Beato, Bobby Parnell and Manny Acosta combined to allow two runs over the final four innings.
“It was a grind, but fortunately the offense pulled through and got us a lot of runs,” Niese said.
Turner’s second homer of the game, a two-run shot into the left-field seats in the fourth, gave the Mets a 7-5 lead. Thole, who finished 3-for-4, had tied the game with a homer leading off the inning against Hanson. The Mets had hit three homers in a game six times this season — most recently on July 5 at Dodger Stadium — but hadn’t gotten four since June 13 of last season at Baltimore.
“It was one of those nights where we got some pitches,” manager Terry Collins said. “I’d like to see it more. That’s certainly not something we do very often.”
The barrage was certainly welcomed by the Mets, who had scored nine runs total in their previous five games. Bay finished with three RBIs, including a run-scoring single in the eighth against Scott Proctor that gave the Mets their final run.
Bay’s two-run homer in the bottom of the third inning erased most of the Braves’ 5-2 cushion. The blast was Bay’s eighth of the season and second on the homestand — he homered against the Marlins on Monday.
The Braves seemed to have firm control of the game after scoring five runs in the third inning against Niese. David Ross’ two-run single was the big hit, after Freddie Freeman had delivered an RBI single and Chipper Jones’ RBI ground out had tied the game. Ross scored the inning’s fifth run on Jose Constanza’s fielder’s choice.
“We had a rough inning,” Turner said. “I’m sure most of the people watching the game were thinking, ‘Here we go again.’ But we’re not that type of team.”