Dansby Swanson and Matt Olson both homered for the third straight game to lead Atlanta to a 5-3 win over the New York Mets on Sunday, giving the Braves a sweep of the three-game series and lowering their magic number to win the National League East to one.
Atlanta (100-59) finishes the season with three games in Miami. New York (98-61) hosts Washington in its final series. Atlanta can win its fifth straight division title with one win or with one New York loss.
Swanson’s 25th homer and Olson’s 33rd homer gives the Braves 241, the second-most in franchise history, bettered only by the 249 struck in 2019. The Braves hit seven home runs in the series.
Atlanta starter Charlie Morton pitched 4 1/3 innings and gave up three runs on nine hits — two of them homers — with one walk and five strikeouts.
Reliever Dylan Lee (5-1) pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief of Morton and earned the win. Collin McHugh, Raisel Iglesias and A.J. Minter followed with scoreless appearances.
Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect ninth to earn his NL-leading 40th save. Jansen saved all three games in the series.
New York starter and loser Chris Bassitt (15-9) struggled with control and left after working a season-low 2 2/3 innings and throwing 70 pitches. He allowed four runs on three hits, three walks, a home run, hit a batter and recorded two strikeouts.
The Braves scored in the first inning on Swanson’s solo homer.
New York tied the game in the second on Daniel Vogelbach’s 18th homer and scored twice in the third to take a 3-1 lead. Jeff McNeil opened with a solo homer, his eighth, and Vogelbach drove in a run with a single to right that scored Pete Alonso. The Mets had runners on the corners with no outs, but Morton retired the next three batters to escape the trouble.
The Braves regained the lead by scoring three times in their half of the third. Olson walked with the bases loaded and Travis d’Arnaud slapped a two-run single to center field to knock Bassitt out of the game.
Atlanta added a run in the sixth on Olson’s long solo shot to right-center field.
–Field Level Media
