Flushing, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Rookie Jacob deGrom tied his career-high with 11 strikeouts over seven shutout innings and the New York Mets rolled to an 8-3 win over the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night.
Seven players knocked in at least one run for the Mets, who scored the first five runs off All-Star Julio Teheran to open the four-game series with back- to-back wins.
DeGrom (2-5) gave up seven hits and didn't allow a walk, throwing 73 of his 108 pitches for strikes, and Curtis Granderson hit his second homer of the series.
The Braves have lost three in a row on the heels of a nine-game winning streak and dropped into a virtual tie for first place with Washington in the NL East because the Nationals' game against Baltimore was rained out Tuesday night.
Teheran (8-6) went just 3 1/3 innings two days after he was named to his first All-Star team. The right-hander gave up five runs, 11 hits and two walks, snapping a two-start winning streak.
Granderson tied Monday night's game with a solo homer in the eighth inning and drove Teheran's second pitch Tuesday off the facade of the second deck above right field for a 1-0 Mets lead.
They tacked on three runs in the second inning, the first two on Daniel Murphy's double to the left-center field gap. Murphy then scored on David Wright's single.
Eric Young Jr. had New York's 10th hit, an RBI single in the third inning to make it 5-0 after the Braves turned a double play.
Murphy doubled and scored on Lucas Duda's double off David Hale in the sixth inning and Kirk Nieuwenhuis had a pinch-hit double off David Carpenter in the seventh to make it 7-0.
Atlanta scored after deGrom came out. Andrelton Simmons drew a one-out walk off Buddy Carlyle, went to second on Justin Upton's single and scored on Jason Heyward's base hit off Dana Eveland.
Duda doubled and scored on Juan Lagares' single in the bottom of the eighth to restore New York's seven-run lead.
As a storm approached and trash blew across the field, the Braves loaded the bases against Eveland in the ninth inning and Freddie Freeman hit a two-run single off Jeurys Familia.
Game Notes
The Mets reached 4,000 all-time wins ... Granderson hit his 14th homer of the season ... The Mets have won three in a row and are 4-1 since being swept in Atlanta last week ... The other 11-strikeout performance from deGrom came May 31 at Philadelphia.
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