Tyrone Taylor hit a grand slam and Jeff McNeil drove in three runs as the New York Mets clobbered the host Atlanta Braves 16-4 on Thursday.
Taylor’s pinch-hit slam in the ninth inning capped the highest-scoring effort of the young season for the Mets, who took two of three games in the series.
McNeil went 2-for-3 with two runs and two walks. Five other players added two hits apiece for New York.
Mets starter Jose Quintana (1-1) gave up three runs on five hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked two and fanned four.
Chadwick Tromp had a two-run double for the Braves, who were outhit 16-10.
New York blew the game open with a four-run third. Francisco Alvarez and McNeil smacked back-to-back RBI doubles and DJ Stewart followed with a two-run homer to make it 7-0.
Allan Winans (0-1) served up all seven of those runs (six earned). He ended up lasting five innings, allowing eight hits while walking two and striking out one.
Atlanta finally showed some life in the home half of the fifth.
Adam Duvall led off with a single and advanced to second on Orlando Arcia’s one-out walk. Duvall and Arcia both scored on Tromp’s double, and Tromp later cut the Braves’ deficit to 7-3 when he came home on a wild pitch.
The Mets got those three runs back in the seventh. Alvarez grounded out to plate Starling Marte, and McNeil lined a two-run single to right-center.
Brandon Nimmo had an RBI triple as part of a two-run eighth for New York, and Duvall had an RBI single in the home half of the frame.
Brett Baty got the Mets off to a quick start with a run-scoring single in the first.
In the second, New York pushed its lead to 3-0 when Nimmo doubled home Harrison Bader before scoring on Marte’s sharp grounder that Arcia misplayed at shortstop.
–Field Level Media
