NEW YORK — As he stood in the Mets' clubhouse shortly after playing in his first major league game, Kevin Plawecki hardly noticed that he had a special gift waiting for him in his locker.
It was his first-hit ball, a keepsake that he earned after collecting a single in the fifth inning of the Mets' 7-1 win over the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night at Citi Field. Plawecki said he hoped to give the ball to his parents, who both were in attendance to see him start behind the plate after being promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas to replace the injured Travis d'Arnaud.
Plawecki did not disappoint in his big league debut, finishing 2-for-4 with two runs to help the Mets win their ninth consecutive game. While he had been dreaming of this moment for his entire life, the 24-year-old rookie catcher said he was still struggling to process the night immediately following the game.
"I don't really know how I anticipated it to be honest," Plawecki said. "It's kind of been a really quick past couple of days with being called up, and it still hasn't really set in to be honest with you. But I'm just happy that today turned out the way it did, and I'm just happy we were able to get a win out of it."
Plawecki handled the team's pitching staff well in his first big league outing, and he earned praise from Jonathon Niese, who collected his second win of the season after allowing one run and four hits after pitching 6.2 innings against the Braves.
Mets win 9th in a row by defeating Atlanta Braves, 7-1
"Awesome, it's like he's been there a time or two," Niese joked. "But for his first game, kept his composure, did great at the plate, caught a good game. Him and I were on the same page pretty much the whole night. We had a good game plan going in, and we stuck to it. It turned out good."
Plawecki, who said prior to the game that he had been focusing on improving his defense, also showed off his arm by throwing out Andrelton Simmons, who had tried to advance to second on a pitch in the dirt in the sixth.
"Kind of made a mistake and made up for it, but just happy to make a good throw and be able to get out of it," Plawecki said.
Manager Terry Collins did not seem surprised by Plawecki's strong night, as he knew the catcher was capable of performing at the big-league level after seeing him play during spring training.
"We thought, 'Boy, if we ever lose [d'Arnaud] for something, we know we've got something coming,'" Collins said. "As bad as we didn't want Travis to get hurt, because of the way he's been playing, this kid's gonna handle himself just fine. He's gonna be a big league player for a long time, and we're very, very lucky that we've got those kind of kids that can come up and they don't miss a beat."
Maria Guardado may be reached at mguardado@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @mi_guardado. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
