NEW YORK -- Jacob deGrom took the mound with a disappointing record, but with the full backing of his manager. The rookie right-hander rewarded Terry Collins confidence with the strongest outing of his young career. DeGrom struck out 11 in seven shutout innings and also delivered a table-setting hit from the No. 8 spot in the batting order as the New York Mets tagged All-Star Julio Teheran and the Atlanta Braves 8-3 Tuesday night. "Showed you that he can certainly compete in this league," Collins praised. The shaggy-haired deGrom (2-5) pitched the Mets to their third win in a row, and the franchises 4,000th victory since starting out as an expansion team in 1962. Atlanta has lost three straight. The lanky 26-year-old scattered seven hits, walked none and matched a career best for strikeouts. "Feel I had my best start," deGrom said. "Controlling every pitch I needed to." DeGrom said he got most of his strikeouts on "elevated fastballs and sinkers," though he felt his most effective pitch was his curveball. "Knows what hes got to do to get a K when he needs it, and just goes out and does it," Collins said. The Mets set a team record at Citi Field with 18 hits. Curtis Granderson kept up his resurgence with a leadoff home run and Lucas Duda doubled twice, singled and drew two walks. Daniel Murphy also doubled twice and third baseman David Wright added two hits and made a nifty catch. DeGroms single led to a three-run burst in the second inning, and he exited as a 6-for-22 (.273) hitter in the majors, part of the reason Collins felt comfortable in tweaking his lineup. "Dont really care where I bat. More focused on the pitching," deGrom said. Said Collins: "Way too much made of the pitcher hitting eighth. Ill need to call La Russa and tell him he created a huge monster." Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa holds the record for most times batting his pitcher eighth in a season -- few other skippers have followed his lead since. Teheran (8-6) gave up a career-high 11 hits after shutting down the Mets in his previous outing, part of a Braves sweep last week. He lasted just 3 1-3 innings, matching the shortest of his 53 starts in the majors. "One of those nights that everybody has and today was mine," he said. "I feel like everything I threw, they got a good swing." Teheran was picked Sunday for his first NL All-Star team, but the 23-year-old righty was very hittable from the get-go. Collins noted before the game that the ball was flying during batting practice -- Granderson proved him correct, lining Teherans second pitch off the facade of the second deck in right field. "Its just one of those starts," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "The young man, hes bound to have a bad one every now and then. If you go out there 35 times, youre going to have a bad one, and today was one of his bad ones." Granderson, rebounding nicely from a slow start, hit his fourth home run in seven games. On Monday night, his tying homer in the eighth inning sent the Mets to an 11-inning win over Atlanta. The shot also gave the Mets a home run in eight straight games at Citi Field, matching a team record for the stadium that opened in 2009. The Mets led 5-0 in the third. Atlanta put runners at the corners with two outs in the sixth, but Wright made a diving, backhanded catch on Jason Heywards liner to end the inning. Three Mets relievers closed out the win. They did it while winds whipped debris all over the field as a storm blew into the ballpark. Freddie Freeman hit a two-out, two-run single in the ninth. NOTES: Granderson hit his third leadoff homer of the year and 27th of his career. Mets RHP Dillon Gee (strained right lat) comes off the disabled list to start Wednesday night against RHP Ervin Santana. ... Teheran is set to start Sunday against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, meaning he wont pitch in the All-Star game Tuesday at Minnesota. ... Andrelton Simmons went hitless for Atlanta. He had six straight multihit games coming in. ... This was the sixth time -- all in the last month -- that Collins has batted his pitcher eighth. DeGrom was the first pitcher to get a hit in that slot. Collins hit Eric Young Jr. in the ninth spot, saying it created a double leadoff position. Noe Ramirez Angels Jersey . -- Alex Anthopoulos spoke volumes with what he didnt say on right-hander Ervin Santana. Max Stassi Jersey . Phoenix originally signed Barbosa to a 10-day contract on Jan. 8 after Eric Bledsoe injured his knee and then signed him to another 10-day deal. https://www.cheapangels.com/643j-ty-buttrey-jersey-angels.html . He even addressed his group of relievers Sunday morning. Dustin McGowan made those worries a nonfactor, at least for a day. McGowan pitched three-hit ball for seven innings, Colby Rasmus hit a grand slam and Melky Cabrera added a two-run homer as the Blue Jays beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-2. Dick Enberg Jersey . The Toronto Maple Leafs were holding a news conference, so they got curious. It didnt take long for them to find out via social media that coach Randy Carlyle was coming back — with a two-year extension — and assistants Greg Cronin, Scott Gordon and Dave Farrish were being let go. Griffin Canning Angels Jersey . Louis Cardinals placed outfielder Allen Craig on the 15-day disabled list with a right knee contusion on Sunday.NEW YORK -- The "laughingstocks" won in a laugher. The Knicks resembled the division champions of a season ago rather than the biggest losers in New York, outplaying and even outtalking the Brooklyn Nets, who look like the real Big Apple busts. Carmelo Anthony had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Iman Shumpert scored a season-high 17 points, and the Knicks ended a nine-game losing streak with 113-83 romp Thursday night in the first meeting of the season between the city rivals. "I think everybody looked like they had that feeling that we were tired of losing," Anthony said. "It showed from the tipoff." The Knicks (4-13) snapped a tie with the Nets (5-14) for most losses in New York, winning the game and the crowd with a dominant second half that had Spike Lee and the rest of the fans wearing blue and orange cheering perhaps the Knicks most complete performance of the season. Andrea Bargnani scored 16 before he was ejected in the fourth quarter, Knicks fans roaring in support of him standing up to Kevin Garnett. Brook Lopez had 24 points and nine rebounds for the Nets, who again played without Paul Pierce, Deron Williams, or much passion in the second half. "Were struggling but were going to come out of this, man, thats the only way to think," Garnett said. "Im not going to think anything else." The game was nationally televised, as all four matchups are this season, but neither team had been giving fans much reason to watch. Nets coach Jason Kidd said Tuesday that both teams "stink," and Anthony not only agreed but added that the Knicks were the "laughingstock" of the league. Nobody was laughing at the Knicks on this night. New York made a season-high 16 3-pointers in 27 attempts (59 per cent), rediscovering a stroke that has been missing all season after it set an NBA record for makes in 2012-13, and led by as many as 34 points. Shumpert, who has been the subject of trade rumours and has struggled, hit five 3s and added six rebounds. The Nets hung in while the Knicks made 16 of their first 21 shots overall and trailed by only seven at halftime "Youve got to give the Knicks credit. They came (for) the season shooting around 32 per cent. Tonight they looked like the team of last year where they made a lot of 3s," said Kidd, who played for the Knicks last seaason.dddddddddddd "When they started the game off it didnt seem as if they were going to miss. But we stayed the course." Until the third quarter, that is, when their season-long woes in that period returned and the Knicks outscored them 34-16. When the public address announcer urged fans to stand and cheer before the fourth, they responded by booing, clearly sick of watching Brooklyn get hammered over the previous 12 minutes yet again. Tensions rose a couple of times, chiefly in the fourth quarter when Bargnani and Garnett became tangled as Bargnani fell to the court while trying to box out. Both players, along with Amare Stoudemire, were called for technical fouls, and Bargnani was hit with a second and thrown out shortly after when he appeared to say something toward Garnett after making a jumper. Garnett wouldnt discuss the incident, saying "I dont understand Italian" -- though Bargnani insisted whatever he said was in English. He also downplayed the exchange. "The most important thing is that we won the game, we played a great game and weve really got to start to build on this," Bargnani said. There were also double technicals and words exchanged after Andray Blatche set a hard pick on Shumpert in the first half, but that was about all the fight the Nets showed on the way to their sixth straight home loss. Both teams were booed during the introduction of starting lineups by split fan bases who are united in their early season disgust. The Nets believed they were a championship contender after acquiring Garnett and Pierce from Boston, the centerpieces of a roster that will cost more than $180 million in salary and luxury taxes. The Knicks are second to the Nets in payroll but had never gotten going after losing Tyson Chandler to a broken leg in their fourth game of the season. But they were the better team right from the tip. The Knicks made 12 of their first 14 shots and were ahead 30-15 after Anthonys 3-pointer with 2:36 remaining in the opening quarter. NOTES: There was a moment of silence before the game for Nelson Mandela, South Africas first black president, who died Thursday at 95. Commissioner David Stern called Mandela "one of the most powerful and inspirational leaders in the world and a great friend of the NBA." ... The Knicks will try to end their seven-game home skid Friday against Orlando. ' ' '