ATLANTA — Long ball, small ball, Mickeyball, the Mets lineup is scoring runs at a historic rate — at least for this franchise — and setting an early tone that offense is required, not optional.
Manager Mickey Callaway’s bashers methodically dismantled the Braves on Friday for a sixth straight game in which they scored at least six runs, tying a franchise mark, getting there for the first time since 2007.
And that was with surging Pete Alonso on the bench for a rest.
“The team motto right now from the offensive standpoint is just to pass the torch along,” Brandon Nimmo said after the Mets won their third straight, 6-2 over the Braves at SunTrust Park, to guarantee no worse than a split in the four-game series.
“However that is, a walk or base hit or home run, it really doesn’t matter, as long as you bring the next guy up to the plate.”
Nimmo, moved from leadoff to the No. 8 hole for the first time this season, delivered the Mets’ only homer — a two-run blast in the second — but the difference was a fourth inning in which the Mets sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs against Kyle Wright.
Nimmo finished a triple short of the cycle in a 3-for-4 performance, and Alonso’s replacement at first base for the night, Dominic Smith, reached base three times.
“I think [the scoring] is sustainable because it’s not just one way,” Callaway said. “You can’t really combat what we’re doing. We are scoring in different ways every game it seems. I do think it’s sustainable. Maybe not six [runs] a game, that is going to be tough to do, but the way we are scoring runs, I think we are going to score more because of that.”
All of it was good enough for Zack Wheeler, who rebounded from two subpar starts to begin the season by pitching six innings in which he allowed two earned runs on six hits and three walks with eight strikeouts.
Five days earlier, Wheeler had walked a career-high seven batters over 4 ²/₃ innings in a loss to the Nationals, but the right-hander pounded the strike zone early on this night to win his first game in his home state since 2014.
Seth Lugo pitched two shutout innings in relief for the Mets to finish it. Justin Wilson pitched a scoreless seventh.
Nimmo’s bunt single was maybe the key hit in a four-run fourth inning in which the Mets seized control. After Keon Broxton walked leading off the inning and stole second, Nimmo bunted for a hit and Jeff McNeil smashed a two-run double that gave the Mets a 4-1 lead.
“I think that was my most important hit tonight, the bunt,” Nimmo said.
Robinson Cano and Michael Conforto each doubled following McNeil’s two-bagger to sink the Braves into a 6-1 hole.
Nimmo’s two-run homer in the second got the Mets started. Smith singled before Nimmo drove a 3-1 pitch with two outs over the fence in right-center for his second homer.
“I felt like today I capitalized better on the pitches that were in the zone, so I felt like that was the main difference,” Nimmo said. “I did get a couple of pitches in the zone and I hit them well rather than fouling them off or swinging through them, which I have been doing mostly. I was glad to be able to do that and find the barrel a couple of times.”
Wheeler walked two batters in the first inning to help the Braves take a 1-0 lead on Nick Markakis’ sacrifice fly.
Ronald Acuna Jr. delivered an RBI double in the fifth for the Braves’ second run against Wheeler, who had walked Freddie Freeman with two outs.
“That was the most stress-free win we’ve had all year,” Callaway said. “Everyone played a great game and it was just solid from the start.”