Don’t tell the Mets that they’ve been lacking in the power department lately — or they’ll take it out on the Braves.
Home runs from Eduardo Escobar, Francisco Lindor, and Mark Canha, along with another strong outing from Chris Bassitt, lifted New York (55-34) to a 7-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday to take the rubber game of their three-game series.
The victory re-extends the Mets’ lead in the division over Atlanta to 2.5 games in what was an important pre-All-Star break test given how the Braves were bearing down on New York’s lead in the NL East.
Facing Charlie Morton, New York got on the board in the second inning when Escobar launched a no-doubter over the right-field wall for his 10th home run of the season.
In the third, Lindor followed it up with a three-run shot of his own — also to right field — to give the Mets a healthy advantage.
It was his 62nd, 63rd, and 64th RBI of the season, which is already one more than he had in all of 2021 during his first season with the club.
Lindor flashed the leather in the fourth inning to bail Bassitt out of a jam in the fourth inning with runners on second and third and two outs, ranging to his right deep into the hole in shortstop and making a long throw to poach Adam Duvall at first.
Canha got in on the fun in the fifth when he got the best of Morton in an eight-pitch at-bat, depositing a solo shot into the seats to put the Mets up five and run Morton out of the game.
Mets hitting, which has been battling inconsistencies recently, still managed to run each of Atlanta’s three starters this series before completing six innings.
Canha’s knock was canceled out in the bottom of the sixth by Matt Olson, who hit his second round-tripper of the series to dead center to pull one back for the hosts.
It was the lone blemish of Bassitt’s game, who went six innings strong while allowing just five hits with six strikeouts.
But Luis Guillorme, who was batting clean-up for the first time in his career, flicked a double down the left-field line to score Nimmo to make it a 6-1 game.
Lindor, who moved to third on Guillorme’s double, came in to score when Braves reliever Jesse Chavez balked.
