Braves 6, Mets 1

[August 29, 2014]  Braves 6, Mets 1: Mike Minor carried a shutout into the eighth inning and Emilio Bonifacio collected four hits as visiting Atlanta won the rubber match of a three-game series, keeping pace in the National League wild-card race.

Minor (6-8) led the way as the Braves capped a 6-4 road trip, allowing one run on four hits with no walks and five strikeouts in seven-plus innings, and added two hits, a RBI and a run scored. Bonifacio went 4-for-5 with a triple and a pair of RBIs as Atlanta remained 1½ games behind San Francisco for the final NL wild-card spot and moved within six games of idle Washington in the NL East.

New York starter Jon Niese (7-10) nearly matched Minor until the eighth, allowing three runs on nine hits with five strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings. Eric Campbell drove in a run for the Mets, who were held to two hits across the first seven innings and gave up three runs in the ninth to lose for the seventh time in 10 games.
 

Andrelton Simmons walked with two outs and nobody on in the second, and after Gerald Laird singled to right, Minor lined a single to left to plate Simmons and put the Braves ahead 1-0. Minor drilled a Niese offering to the wall in right for a double to lead off the eighth, and after Bonifacio brought him home with a triple to deep center two hitters later, Freddie Freeman’s single scored Bonifacio to make it 3-0.

Minor, who took a no-hitter into the eighth inning Friday at Cincinnati before settling for a no-decision, set down the first 12 New York hitters before Lucas Duda singled to lead off the fifth. Minor ran into trouble in the eighth, giving up Travis d’Arnaud’s leadoff double before Campbell’s RBI single brought the Mets within 3-1, but David Carpenter came on and squelched the New York rally.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The Mets placed P Vic Black (herniated disc in his neck) on the disabled list and activated P Daisuke Matsuzaka, who gave up Ryan Doumit’s two-run pinch-hit homer and Bonifacio’s RBI single in the ninth. … New York 3B David Wright returned to the lineup after missing two games with a sore neck and went 0-for-4. … Bonifacio started in center for B.J. Upton, who went hitless in his final 14 at-bats of the road trip.

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