Mets  3    Braves  7

New York Mets (63-83) at Atlanta Braves (77-68), 7:10 p.m.

Sports Network | September 17, 2009

(Sports Network) - It may be too little and too late for the Atlanta Braves, but the club has been doing its best lately to keep itself part of the National League's playoff mix.

The Braves aim to run their season-best winning streak to seven games in tonight's clash with the struggling New York Mets from Turner Field.

Atlanta kept up its recent winning ways by putting together a fierce ninth- inning rally in Wednesday's second test of this three-game set. The Braves scored twice in the bottom of the ninth inning to pull out a 6-5 decision, with David Ross scoring the winning run on a fielding error by Mets first baseman Daniel Murphy.

Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez was trying for his first four-out save since 2007, but things unraveled in the ninth with New York clinging to a 5-4 lead.

Garret Anderson doubled leading off and Brian McCann was hit by a pitch to put the first two men on. Both were replaced by pinch-runners who moved up to second and third, respectively, on Yunel Escobar's sacrifice. Adam LaRoche was then issued an intentional walk to load the bases and Omar Infante lofted a sacrifice fly to center to tie the score.

Ex-Met Ryan Church then hit a high chopper up the first-base line and Murphy stayed back on it, then had it bounce high off his forearm while going for the scoop. Murphy had a chance to recover, but misplayed the ball a second time and Ross raced home from second ahead of the throw to end the game.

"It was just a matter of him getting to the ball," said Church. "From my vantage point it looked like he got caught in between and it just took a bad hop on him."

The thrilling win kept the Braves five games behind Colorado for the lead in the NL Wild Card race and 7 1/2 back of first-place Philadelphia in the NL East standings.

Infante finished 2-for-4 with two RBI for Atlanta, which will be aiming to win seven straight times for the first time since July 8-18, 2006 and sends the formidable Jair Jurrjens to the mound tonight.

Jurrjens is coming off a brilliant eight-inning performance that spurred Atlanta to a 1-0 victory over NL Central-leading St. Louis on Friday. The steady right-hander held the Cardinals to six hits and struck out seven to lower his season earned run average to 2.81, the eighth-best mark in the National League.

The win was Jurrjens' first since August 19, when he fired six innings of two- run ball to beat the Mets in New York. The Braves' bats have often gone silent with him on the mound, as Atlanta has mustered only five runs over the 23- year-old's last four starts.

Jurrjens has had great success when facing the Mets since joining the Braves in a trade with Detroit prior to the 2008 season. In six lifetime matchups with New York, the Curacao native is 4-1 with a strong 2.87 ERA.

The Mets, who have now dropped four straight and eight of their last nine tilts and have fallen 20 games under .500 (63-83) for the season, will hand the ball to journeyman Nelson Figueroa tonight. The 35-year-old has lost each of his past two starts, although he did pitch fairly well in a 4-2 setback at Philadelphia on Friday.

Figueroa walked five Phillies and allowed nine hits in 5 1/3 innings in that game, but limited the damage to only two runs before exiting. The right-hander had struck out a combined 18 hitters in 13 frames over his previous two starts, both of which came against the Chicago Cubs.

Since joining New York's injury-ravaged rotation in late August, Figueroa has gone 1-3 with a respectable 3.09 ERA in four starts.

The Braves are 9-5 against the Mets so far this season and have now won four straight meetings between the clubs.