Pérez pitches 6 more scoreless innings, Albies and Olson homer for Braves in 4-0 win over Mets

ATLANTA (AP) — Martín Pérez pitched six more scoreless innings, Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson homered, and the Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets 4-0 Tuesday night.

Pérez (8-6) stretched his scoreless stretch to 18 innings, the third-longest active starting streak in the majors behind Tampa Bay's Drew Rasmussen and Miami's Sandy Alcantara, both at 20 innings.

Albies homered in the fifth on an 0-2 pitch from Nolan McLean (8-8), the only significant mistake made by the Mets starter over six innings. Olson added his 35th homer in the eighth, a two-run shot.

The Braves had only three hits, but produced enough offense for Pérez, who has not allowed a run since Francisco Linder of the Mets hit a two-run homer when the teams met in New York on July 27.

The 35-year-old left-hander has given a huge boost to the Braves' injury plagued rotation since being brought in as a non-roster addition for spring training.

The Braves scored in the seventh without a hit, taking advantage of Jefry Yan's wildness. The rookie didn't get a chance to show off his strikeout celebration, walking three and throwing a wild pitch that set up Mauricio Dubón’s sacrifice fly.

Pérez faced his only serious trouble in the sixth, when Bo Bichette walked with one out and raced to third on Luis Robert Jr.'s single to right. But Carson Benge hit into an inning-ending double play to give the Atlanta left-hander his third straight scoreless outing.

Both teams turned in defensive gems in the second inning, though only one resulted in an out.

Braves shortstop Jim Jarvis made a diving stop on Benge's hard grounder up the middle, hopped up and made a throw to first that beat the runner. But Olson's foot barely came off the bag, and the call was changed to a hit after the Mets challenged.

New York left fielder A.J. Ewing made an out that did stand in the bottom half, racing toward the line for a belly-first grab on Dubón's liner that appeared headed toward the corner.

RHP Tyler Mahle (3-9, 4.83) makes his second start for the Braves in the finale of the three-game series against Mets LHP Zac Thornton (3-2, 2.52). Mahle pitched six scoreless innings in his Atlanta debut against the Yankees after being acquired ahead of the trade deadline from San Francisco.

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