![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hits-two-run-home-run-135702549.jpg\")
Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (12) hits a two-run home run during the third inning when the New York Mets played the Atlanta Braves Monday, July 27, 2026. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\nZac Thornton\u2019s scoreless stretch is over.<\/p>\n
But the rookie\u2019s latest solid outing has put more important streaks in play.<\/p>\n
With his fourth straight start of at least six innings, Thornton earned his second career (and consecutive) win, leading the Mets to a 14-3 victory over the Braves on Monday night at Citi Field. Aided by a late offensive explosion \u2014 the team finished with 19 hits after scoring nine runs in its final two innings \u2014 the Mets claimed their second straight win over a first-place team, as well as their first back-to-back wins since July 8-9.<\/p>\n
Thornton (2-1, 2.43 ERA) entered his fifth career start having thrown 18 straight scoreless innings \u2014 the longest such stretch by a Mets rookie since 2016 (Steven Matz) \u2014 but the southpaw allowed a run before his first inning was done. <\/p>\n
Still, the 24-year-old exited to a standing ovation in the rain after pitching into the seventh inning. Thornton allowed three runs, six hits and one walk in 6 \u00b9\/\u2083 innings, with five strikeouts on 81 pitches (54 strikes).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he has done has not surprised me, [but] the string of zeroes is surprising for anybody,\u201d Mets interim manager Andy Green said before the game. \u201cHe has done a lot of tremendous things. He\u2019s attacked the zone the way he does. He has gotten pitches chased at the right time. He\u2019s missed barrels and gotten on handles. That doesn\u2019t surprise me. Process-wise, he has done what we expected him to be. Results-wise, he\u2019s had a good run. We expect runs to cross the plate at some point in time against him, but the way he has gone about his business, the conviction on the mound is not surprising at all.<\/p>\n
Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (12) hits a two-run home run during the third inning when the New York Mets played the Atlanta Braves Monday, July 27, 2026. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys will adjust to what he has done. That said, he\u2019s got five pitches. He doesn\u2019t have to do the same thing to be successful. I think he\u2019ll continue to show he belongs here and continue to make the adjustments as necessary as time goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entering the night, opponents were hitting .175 against Thornton. But the lefty surrendered three hits before he recorded three outs, seeing his shutout streak end at 18 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings after Ozzie Albies beat out Francisco Lindor\u2019s throw for a run-scoring infield single. The rookie allowed just three more hits over the next 5 \u00b9\/\u2083 innings.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/throws-pitch-1st-inning-new-135699580.jpg\")
Mets pitcher Zac Thornton (49) throws a pitch during the 1st inning when the New York Mets played the Atlanta Braves Monday, July 27, 2026. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n
The Mets never fell behind again after Lindor hit a first-inning triple off the top of the right field wall, bringing home A.J. Ewing. After Thornton settled down and retired seven straight, Ewing delivered his second of three singles and Lindor hit a shot that barely cleared the left field wall, giving the Mets a 3-1 lead on his seventh home run of the season.<\/p>\n
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Albies evened the score with a two-run homer in the fourth inning, but Marcus Semien (2-for-3 with a walk) put the Mets back in front with a two-run homer to left in the sixth. His 12th home run of the year was his third in the past five games.<\/p>\n
Tyrone Taylor put the game away with a three-run blast one inning later for his second homer in as many days. Lindor then capped a five-run eighth by smacking a three-run homer to left for his 23rd career multihomer game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zac Thornton\u2019s scoreless stretch is over. But the rookie\u2019s latest solid outing has put more important streaks in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13831,30159,20,9,11,320,10,319],"class_list":["post-307358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-francisco-lindor","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}