It was the seventh inning on Thursday in Atlanta and the Mets had yet to put the finishing touches on what had to be an immensely satisfying 16-4 beatdown of the Braves. But they had loaded the bases with no outs and a 7-3 lead, a development the seven-time NL East defending champs reacted to with a collective yawn.
That is, the Braves didn’t even bring the infield in, as manager Brian Snitker essentially said he would rather take his chances of coming back from five runs down than gamble by committing to cutting off another run from scoring.