LEAP & DEEP: Jason Bay jumped to rob the Braves’ Jack Wilson of a homer in the fifth inning. (EPA)
LEAP & DEEP: Ike Davis went yard in the sixth to send the Mets to a 6-1 victory last night in Atlanta. (AP)
ATLANTA — Does this one count, Ike?
After lamenting on Sunday that his home run against the Phillies was meaningless because his team lost, Ike Davis last night delivered as important a blast as the Mets have received this season.
Davis’ three-run homer in the sixth inning against Tommy Hanson was the jolt the Mets needed to grab a 6-1 victory over the Braves before a sparse crowd of 16,161 at Turner Field.
Davis started the season 0-for-18 before breaking into the hit column Wednesday against the Nationals. On Sunday he hit his first homer, a first-inning shot against Cole Hamels in Philadelphia, but watched as the Mets’ bullpen flushed the game in an 8-2 defeat. This time he snapped a 1-1 tie in the sixth and watched the Mets roll.
“The last three games I’ve felt really relaxed in the box,” Davis said. “I haven’t gotten a lot of hits, but I’ve hit a couple of balls hard. I’ve had good [at-bats], maybe one or two a game. I haven’t had a full game of good ABs yet, so I like to keep working and try to have good ABs the whole game.”
Davis’ bomb put Dillon Gee (1-1) in position for the victory. Ruben Tejada doubled and David Wright was intentionally walked with two outs after Hanson fell behind 2-0 in the count. Davis launched a 2-2 curveball — almost one-handed — into the right-field seats.
“If you’re around Ike Davis, the one thing he doesn’t lack is confidence,” manager Terry Collins said. “He believes in his ability. He knows he’s off to a rough start, but it’s the same guy that last year got off to a hot and torrid start.”
Jason Bay returned to the lineup after missing Sunday’s game with a swollen right ring finger and had a big night. Bay reached above the left-field fence to rob Jack Wilson of a homer leading off the fifth before hitting a solo home run in the ninth that extended the Mets’ lead to 6-1. Bay’s circus catch was reminiscent of one he made here last season to rob Alex Gonzalez of a homer.
After seeing Bay’s performance and Wright’s strong play after returning Saturday from a broken right pinkie — both injuries came on dives back into first base — Collins made an announcement to his team.
“[Collins] came in and made a joke, he said, ‘I want everybody to come in and line up,’ ” Bay said. “I wasn’t sure where he was going with it. He said, ‘Everybody has got to dive back to first base and jam fingers.’ Then I got it.”
Gee was masterful, allowing one run on four hits with one walk and five strikeouts over seven innings. The righty cruised into the seventh and then escaped a first-and-second, no-out jam. The final dagger was a strikeout of pinch hitter Juan Francisco.
“The seventh inning, this was grow time — a time for [Gee] to step up and show everybody that last year was not a fluke and he belongs in this league,” Collins said.
Gee’s surrendered his only run in the second on Wilson’s RBI groundout with the bases loaded. He didn’t face another stiff challenge until the seventh, when Josh Thole was called for interference on Jason Heyward, putting runners on first and second with no outs.
“It’s a big confidence builder,” Gee said. “You get in a hole like that, a situation that definitely could blow up in your face, and you get out of it and it makes you feel good.”