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Mets look to finish off Braves

Sep 10, 2007 - 2:01 PM Atlanta (73-70) at NY Mets (81-61) 7:10 pm EDT

FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) -- The Atlanta Braves had the New York Mets' number for most of the year, but they may be running out of gas.

The Braves will attempt to save their season when they visit the Mets on Monday for the start of a three-game series.

Atlanta likely needs a sweep of first-place New York to have any hope of staying in the division race. The Braves managed just four runs in three games from August 31 - September 2 and are now 8 1/2 games behind New York in the division and 4 1/2 games behind San Diego (77-65) in the wild card race.

They had been 8-4 against the Mets this season prior to that series.

Tim Hudson (15-7, 3.47) will look to end a personal three-game skid that has seen him go 0-2 with a 7.88 ERA, including allowing four runs in a loss to New York on August 31. In 11 lifetime starts against the Mets, the veteran righthander is 7-3 with a 3.60 ERA.

Oliver Perez (13-9, 3.46) will counter for New York. The wild lefthander has walked five batters in each each of his last three starts but has minimized the damage enough to go 2-1 over that stretch.

Perez got knocked around by the Braves on August 7, allowing six runs and 10 hits in five innings to suffer a loss. However, in 10 career starts against Atlanta the 26-year-old is 5-4 with a 3.48 ERA.