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Mets-Braves Preview

Sep 15, 2009 - 9:39 PM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

New York (63-81) at Atlanta (75-68), 7:10 p.m. EDT

While their playoff hopes are slim, the Atlanta Braves are trying to make a late push for the postseason. Hosting a three-game series with the New York Mets should help.

Rookie Tommy Hanson tries to help the Braves match their season high with five straight wins when they face the Mets on Tuesday night.

Atlanta (75-68) is third in the NL East, 7 1/2 games behind first-place Philadelphia with 19 games remaining. The Braves are also well back of Colorado for the wild card, but completed a three-game sweep of St. Louis with Sunday's 9-2 victory that capped a 5-1 road trip.

"Until you're mathematically eliminated, you hope for a miracle," left fielder Matt Diaz told the team's official Web site.

Atlanta has batted .318 during its four-game winning streak, and is in position to match its longest run of the season for a second time. The Braves won five in a row from June 28-July 3 before doing so again from Aug. 7-12.

"We're capable of playing like this, and hopefully we'll play this way the rest of the year and hopefully make some people in front of us nervous," said Diaz, who drove in two runs with a single Sunday.

Hanson (9-3, 2.83 ERA) hasn't benefited from that kind of offensive support of late. The right-hander, making his first appearance against the Mets, went 0-1 in his last three starts despite a 1.20 ERA. The Braves scored six runs in those games and lost all three.

Hanson yielded five hits in eight scoreless innings Wednesday, but closer Rafael Soriano gave up a two-run walkoff single in a 2-1 loss at Houston.

"That's just the way it goes sometimes," Hanson said. "We did a good job of keeping runs off the board. That's just baseball. Everything felt really good. I would definitely say that was one of my better starts."

The Braves have taken 11 of 15 from the Mets at Turner Field, hitting .337 in the victories.

Yunel Escobar, batting .375 during the winning streak, has a lot do with that. The shortstop has hit .478 with six doubles, two homers, 11 RBIs and 14 runs in the 12 games against New York this year.

Atlanta leads the season series 7-5.

The Mets (63-81) were swept in a doubleheader by Philadelphia on Sunday, dropping the opener 5-4 and falling 1-0 in the second contest to be eliminated from playoff contention.

New York will give the ball to Pat Misch (1-2, 3.86), who is looking to rebound from his worst start since joining the rotation nearly three weeks ago.

The left-hander surrendered five runs and two homers in six innings of a 6-3 loss to Florida on Wednesday. That came after he went 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA in two starts following 19 relief outings.

Misch is 0-0 with a 3.00 ERA in six innings over four relief appearances against Atlanta.