Braves  11    Mets  3

Recap: NY Mets vs. Atlanta

Sports Network | September 21, 2009

Flushing, NY (Sports Network) - Chipper Jones hit one of three Atlanta home runs off Pat Misch, a three-run shot, as the Braves crushed the New York Mets, 11-3, in the opener of a three-game series.

Garret Anderson had a two-run homer and Matt Diaz added a solo shot for the Braves, who scored all their runs in the first three innings. Martin Prado went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI in the victory, which pulled Atlanta within five games of idle Colorado in the NL wild card standings.

Derek Lowe (15-9), who collected two hits, took the win after giving up three runs on six hits in five innings. He also struck out five for the Braves, who opened a six-game road trip.

"I've gotten myself in an unbelievably poor habit, and we've been working hard the last five days to change things. There was definitely signs of progress," Lowe said. "Whenever you get 11 runs, it was actually a good game for me personally, because we were able to go out there and experiment and see how it worked."

Atlanta pummeled Misch (1-4), the Mets' starter, for eight runs in 1 1/3 frames, during which he allowed seven hits, walked one and fanned one. Daniel Murphy went 2-for-4 with a homer for New York, which had a two-game win streak broken.

"You just go out there every day to compete and today was one of those days where I didn't get a chance to compete, really," Misch said. "They just blew the doors open right way. I didn't give us a chance to win at all."

Nate McLouth began the game with a single and Prado doubled before Jones plated a run with a groundout. Brian McCann then walked to put runners on the corners, and Yunel Escobar beat out a potential double-play grounder to allow another run to cross the plate. Anderson followed with a two-run blast to right field, making it a 4-0 game.

Diaz then led off the second inning with a homer. Later in the frame, with two runners on, Jones ripped a homer into the left-field corner to push Atlanta's lead to 8-0. Misch was then removed as Lance Broadway entered and got the final two outs.

Josh Thole's run-scoring groundout in the second got the Mets on the board, but an RBI double from McLouth and two-run double from Prado in the third made the score 11-1.

Murphy began the fourth with a homer, and in the fifth Angel Pagan followed Anderson Hernandez's triple with a groundout to bring the Mets within 11-3.

Kenshin Kawakami threw the final four innings for Atlanta to pick up a save.

Misch's eight runs allowed were a season high...Sultan Kosen, recently named the tallest man in the world at 8-foot-1, was in attendance.