Mets and Braves trade late swings in extra innings, Dodgers reach 60 wins as baseball keeps piling up storylines

Major League Baseball’s Monday night recap had the usual problem of plenty happening at once, and the Braves and Mets delivered one of the sharpest examples. In the series finale at Truist Park, New York and Atlanta exchanged leads in a game that stayed tight deep into the evening, then tilted in extra innings as both sides kept finding ways to score. MLB’s recap from the game notes that the contest ended 7-6 Mets in 10 innings, with both teams’ closers blowing a ninth-inning save opportunity in a ninth that suddenly became the hinge of the night.

The scoring started early for the Mets. FOX Sports’ breakdown of the matchup described Carson Benge, a rookie right fielder, launching a solo homer in the second inning to put New York ahead 1-0. Atlanta answered in the bottom of that inning when Jim Jarvis tied the game, and the Braves pulled ahead 2-1 when Michael Harris II delivered an RBI single in the middle frames. From there, the back-and-forth turned into a sequence of momentum swings rather than a long stretch of one-way baseball.

The Braves found more distance with power, but the Mets kept chipping away. FOX Sports reported that first baseman Matt Olson hit his 23rd home run of the year in the next inning, pushing Atlanta’s lead to 3-2 before New York narrowed the gap in the sixth. In that frame, catcher Francisco Alvarez drove in Benge with a single to right to make it 3-2, and FOX Sports also highlighted an important defensive stop later when left fielder Mauricio Dubón made a key catch with a runner already on first, removing an opportunity that could have flipped the run environment again.

In the ninth inning, the game’s late-night leverage leaned toward the Mets in a way that felt like a postseason swing. FOX Sports described star left fielder Juan Soto batting with runners on and two outs, then sending a 95 mph four-seam fastball from Raisel Iglesias for a two-run blast measured at 430 feet. That swing put New York ahead 5-3, setting up a late rally attempt by the Braves that ultimately carried the game into the extra frames.

The broader slate also came with its own milestones and late-game pressure, even in the games where the drama was not one continuous slugfest. FOX Sports’ “Last Night in Baseball” roundup credited the Dodgers with reaching 60 wins first among MLB teams, a pace marker that matters as the season moves deeper into July, when separation starts to show in playoff positioning. The same roundup also noted that the Brewers rallied late, underscoring a common midseason theme: teams with enough depth to keep turning at-bats over can win even when the earlier innings do not cooperate.

For New York, the Braves contest was also a statement about endurance. MLB’s report focused on the ninth-inning save breakdown and the extra-innings finish, a combination that tends to happen when both bullpens get squeezed and a small number of at-bats decide the outcome. The Mets’ ability to convert a late-leverage inning with Soto, then survive Atlanta’s response, keeps their monthly rhythm from collapsing even when the margin is thin.

What to watch next is whether the Mets and Braves can turn this kind of high-leverage steadiness into repeatable bullpen and late-inning execution. In a division where Atlanta and New York have been trading blows, games decided by a single late sequence can become more than a one-night story, they can influence how teams manage the next few weeks. Meanwhile, the Dodgers’ early arrival at 60 wins sets a benchmark for the rest of the league, and Milwaukee’s late rally reinforces that the contenders are not done waiting for the last innings to arrive.