Dillon Gee outpitched Jair Jurrjens to remain unbeaten this season and Jose Reyes hit a bases-loaded triple, leading the New York Mets past the Atlanta Braves 5-0 on Saturday night.
Pinch-hitter Jason Pridie snapped a scoreless tie with an RBI single in the seventh and the Mets took advantage of an error by shortstop Alex Gonzalez to score five times in the inning.
New York’s struggling bullpen finally preserved a lead, too, with Pedro Beato and Tim Byrdak combining for two perfect innings to close it out.
The Mets set an unwanted major league record Friday night: Their last six home losses have all come in games in which they led in the seventh inning. The bullpen had a 10.57 ERA over the previous 12 games.
Gee (6-0) won his fourth straight start, needing only 85 pitches to get through seven innings before he was lifted for a pinch-hitter. The cool-as-a-cucumber rookie allowed four hits and walked two while finishing with a pair of strikeouts.
He had to be sharp in his matchup with Jurrjens, the National League pitcher of the month for May. The two pitchers came in with the top winning percentages in the league.
New York has won all eight of Gee’s starts this season, making him the only pitcher who has made at least five starts without his team losing any of them.
Jurrjens (7-2) was cruising along until his defense let him down in the seventh.
With one out, slumping Jason Bay hit a grounder to Gonzalez and the normally sure-handed shortstop fumbled it as he tried to make the transfer from his glove to his throwing hand.
It was Gonzalez’s fourth error of the season.
Josh Thole followed with a double to right and Jurrjens grazed Ruben Tejada’s uniform top with a pitch, loading the bases. Pridie came off the bench and punched a broken-bat single to right to put New York ahead 1-0.
That was it for Jurrjens, who threw 58 of his 90 pitches for strikes. Scott Proctor came on and Reyes ripped an 0-1 pitch into the right-field corner for his major league-leading 10th triple, prompting fans to chant his name.
One night earlier, Reyes made a crucial error that allowed Atlanta to tie the game in the eighth inning of a 6-3 victory. A few innings before that, about 800 fans met on a pedestrian bridge beyond the right-center wall to cheer Reyes and urge Mets management to not trade the All-Star shortstop, who can become a free agent after the season.
Justin Turner added a sacrifice fly, making it 5-0.
The Braves dropped to 13-7 at Citi Field and failed again in their third attempt to move a season-high seven games over .500.
New York improved to 4-5 on its 10-game homestand.
Jurrjens allowed four runs — three earned — and six hits in 6 1-3 innings. He struck out six and walked none. His major league-best ERA rose from 1.51 to 1.75.
In his first nine starts this season, the right-hander had gone at least six innings and not allowed more than two earned runs. The Braves said the only other pitchers in major league history to do that were Ubaldo Jimenez, who went 12 games last year, Randy Johnson (2000) and Lefty Gomez (1937), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.