ATLANTA — Give this man the Nobel Peace Prize.
A day after Daisuke Matsuzaka put the Mets through three innings of torturous hell — and decimated his team’s bullpen in the process — Carlos Torres last night breezed into the seventh with a shutout before ultimately getting Tomahawk Chopped.
Evan Gattis and Andrelton Simmons each homered in the seventh and the Mets never responded in a 3-1 loss to the Braves at Turner Field.
Kris Medlen and two relievers stifled the Mets (62-75), who lost their third straight and will need a victory today to avoid getting swept three games by the Braves.
With Torres (3-3) pitching a four-hit shutout, at 66 pitches, manager Terry Collins left the right-hander in the game to bat with runners on the corners and two outs in the sixth. Torres struck out against Medlen and then allowed two bombs in the seventh.
Gattis hit a solo homer to make it 1-1 with one out before Dan Uggla walked. Simmons then hit a two-run homer to account for the final scoring.
“They can all hit a home run, and that’s why they’ve been winning,” Collins said. “They can score quick and fast.”
Torres, who had a second straight solid start since rejoining the rotation to take Matt Harvey’s place, took little consolation in the fact he kept the Mets close.
The key to the seventh might have been Uggla’s walk.
“He let some good pitches go and fouled off some others,” Torres said. “And then I just missed with the full-count pitch and he ended up on first base. Then it was throwing a strike to Simmons and he hit that.”
Daniel Murphy’s RBI double in the sixth against Medlen (12-12) produced the game’s first run. It continued a sizzling stretch for Murphy, who yesterday was named NL Player of the Week after batting .448 with seven RBIs last week.
>Eric Young Jr. tripled leading off the inning and scored on Murphy’s double. Gattis got a poor read on Young’s shot, which caromed off the left-field wall, allowing Young to barely beat the relay.
“Once I saw the placement and where exactly Gattis was playing me, I knew it was one out and I could take the gamble going for third,” Young said. “It was zeroes on the board at that time so runs were limited and we tried to get as much as we can.”
The Mets had few opportunities early against Medlen. Young singled leading off the game and got as far as third base with two outs, but was left stranded. After Medlen retired 11 straight, Lucas Duda doubled in the fourth, but Travis d’Arnaud struck out to end the inning. In the fifth, Omar Quintanilla lined into a double play after Juan Lagares had singled leading off the inning.
Torres escaped potential trouble in the second, retiring Uggla and Simmons after Gattis had singled and gone to second on a wild pitch. Gattis also singled in the fourth and was left stranded.
“I think [Torres] did great tonight,” Young said. “If you want to look at the whole performance, only two pitches were bad out of the whole game, and I don’t even think those were bad. They just put good swings on them.”