Major League Baseball
NY Mets 4, Atlanta 1
When: 7:10 PM ET, Thursday, September 27, 2018
Where: Citi Field, New York City, New York
Temperature: 69°
Umpires: Home - Fieldin Culbreth, 1B - Brian O'Nora, 2B - Chris Conroy, 3B - CB Bucknor
Attendance: 24824

New York Mets left-hander Jason Vargas completed an impressive season-ending run Thursday night, tossing seven scoreless innings in a 4-1 victory against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field.

The Mets took two of three in the series from the National League East champion Braves (89-70), who fell into a tie with the NL West-leading Colorado Rockies in the race for the second seed in the NL and home-field advantage in next week's Division Series. The Rockies are a game ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the West.

Vargas (7-9) allowed just three hits, struck out six and walked none in his longest start since June 30, 2017. He went 5-1 with a 2.62 ERA in his final eight starts following a rough beginning to his year.

Vargas started the season 2-8 with an 8.75 ERA in 12 starts while missing time due to a broken hand and strained right calf.

His battery-mate, Kevin Plawecki, led off the third inning with a solo homer, his seventh.

The Mets added three insurance runs in the seventh. Jay Bruce singled and Todd Frazier walked to open the inning against Jesse Biddle. Two outs later, Devin Mesoraco, pinch-hitting for Vargas, hit a three-run homer off Brad Brach. It was Mesoraco's 11th homer of the season.

The Braves, who were shut out over 21 innings by Mets starters in the series, stirred in the eighth, when Adam Duvall hit a leadoff single against Anthony Swarzak and Ryan Flaherty followed with a walk. Ronald Acuna Jr,'s one-out single off Drew Smith scored Duvall, but Smith got the final two outs of the inning.

Robert Gsellman allowed a pair of baserunners in the ninth but earned his 13th save by striking out the potential tying run, pinch-hitter Freddie Freeman, for the final out.

Bruce had two hits for the Mets while Acuna had two hits for the Braves.

Julio Teheran (9-9), who was likely auditioning for a spot in Atlanta's postseason rotation, took the loss after allowing one run on two hits and two walks while striking out five over six innings.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Atlanta   NY Mets
Julio Teheran Player Jason Vargas
Loss W/L Win
6.0 IP 7.0
5 Strikeouts 6
2 Hits 3
1.50 ERA 0.00
Hitting
Atlanta   NY Mets
Ronald Acuna Jr. Player Jay Bruce
2 Hits 2
1 RBI 0
0 HR 0
2 TB 2
.500 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Atlanta 6 0 6 .188 13 8 1 1 0 0
NY Mets 5 2 12 .172 14 10 4 4 1 0