Gut Reaction: Once again it’s like old times in Atlanta
To this day I hate when the Mets play in Atlanta. The Braves, who won 14 straight division titles at one point, soured me on the entire city when they kept kicking the Mets’ butts. I have been to Atlanta once, for about three hours in 1994, but that’s a story for another day. Aside from routinely getting beaten the Mets could hardly ever get Travis D’Arnaud out. Now at least we have the more current memory of beating the Braves on the way into the playoffs last year. Let’s hope that becomes the norm.
The Mets threw David Peterson tonight coming off the best game of his career, a complete game shutout with no walks issued. He stood at 5-2 with a 2.49 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP. Spencer Schwellenbach started for the third place Braves and his 5-4 record, 3.11 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP shows how good he has been on this unusually bad Braves team. If not for a 1-9 run by the Nationals, the Braves would be sitting in fourth place. The opposing pitchers get tougher after tonight needing to face Chris Sale (vs Paul Blackburn) and then Spencer Strider (vs. Clay Holmes).
The Mets lineup looked pretty standard 1-5. Batting 6th was DH Jared Young and his .174 average. As if that was not bad enough, Young is hitting .167 on the road. Any batter hitting less than my weight should be released. Can anyone explain why Young is still on this team and the fact that Winker is out is not an acceptable answer? At 3B was Ronnie Mauricio and his .206 average and .701 OPS. Why can’t these baby Mets who tear up AAA, hit in the bigs? The Phillies are blessed with three more games against the terrible Marlins, so the Mets need to be on their game.
To keep us entertained during a 61 minute rain delay, SNY played a great program about Darryl Strawberry, one that I had seen a number of times. Perhaps all of the home runs Straw hit during that program propelled Juan Soto to get the Mets on the board with a two out solo shot in the first inning, his 14th of the season, a bomb over the center field wall.
Peterson started the game off my walking Ronald Acuna, Jr. Alonso fielded a ball in his direction, stepped on the bag for the first out and then trapped Acuna between first and second for a double play. The Mets put up a crooked number in the second inning with Tyronne Taylor hitting a clutch 2-out bloop double to score Jeff McNeil, who ripped a singled to right field extending his consecutive on base streak to 19 games, and Francisco Alvarez who walked after DH Jared Young flew out to short left field and Ronnie Mauricio struck out. If Acuna had been able to run at 100%, he might have snagged that bloop.
In the bottom of the third Peterson got the first two outs before issuing his second walk, both to Acuna. Eli White followed with an opposite field single, and Matt Olson singled to center to score Acuna, decreasing the Mets lead to 3-1. In the fifth inning, Taylor, who was bandied about in a few Mets 360 posts today, got his second hit, a 407 foot solo blast over the left center field wall to up the lead to 4-1.
Through five innings Peterson had thrown 60 pitches, given up four hits, two walks and one run. Alonso got his second hit, a sixth inning single, but was doubled off first after a line drive off the bat of McNeil. Peterson retired the Braves in order in the 6th, needing only 12 pitches to do so. Jared Young led off the Mets 7th striking out and lowering his batting average to .154. Can anyone explain why he is still on this roster? Schwellenbach, who like Peterson threw a complete game his last time out, retired the Mets in order in the top of the 7th.
Peterson started the bottom of the 7th getting a ground ball to Mauricio who threw an in-between hop to Alonso that he could not field. The ball went into the camera well allowing Marcel Ozuna to trot down to second base. Peterson retired the next three batters to end the 7th with 83 pitches in the books. The announcers were wondering how long the Mets would let him go tonight. The Mets went down in order in the 8th and Peterson was on the mound in the 8th as expected.
Peterson started the 8th walking the leadoff batter for his third walk of the game. Acuna followed with a single through the right side and Carlos Mendoza had seen enough going to the pen for Reed Garrett. Garrett gave up a single to pinch hitter Alex Verdugo, a liner to right field that was fielded quickly by Soto in right center and he got the ball in quickly to keep the Braves off the board, although the bases were now loaded. Garrett struck out Matt Olson for the first out and got Austin Riley to fly out to shallow right field, but not far enough for the runner at third to tag up. Garrett had Ozuna at 2-2 before he ripped a bases clearing double over Mauricio’s head into the left field corner. And just like that the Braves battled back to 4-4 going to the 9th.
In the ninth the Mets had Soto, Alonso and McNeil scheduled up with Edwin Diaz warming up to pitch the 9th. Soto started the inning ripping a single into right field at 111 MPH but Acuna leaped and took an extra base hit away from Alonso and doubled off Soto who should never have been that far off the base with the play right in front of him. McNeil struck out to end the inning and in came Diaz for the bottom of the 9th with the bottom of the Braves order due up.
Little brother Luis Angel Acuna came in as a defensive replacement at second base for McNeil who made the last out of the 8th. Diaz retired the Braves in order in the 9th and it was on to extra innings. With McNeil making the last out of the 8th, Acuna becomes the ghost runner. Young, who for some reason was still in the game, struck out lowering his batting average to .148. The Met failed to score in the 10th and now had to face the top of the Braves order.
Acuna, who had scored two of the Braves runs and who made a spectacular catch against Alonso, was walked intentionally putting runners on first and second with no outs. The Mets got an out and then on a poorly thrown pitch, with the runner caught off second, Alvarez threw behind the runner instead of throwing to third. Now first and third, Brazoban walked Olson to load the bases and the next batter hit a sac fly making the Braves 5-4 walk off winners.
With a Phillies loss to the Marlins, the Mets did not lose any ground but given the next two starters who will face them, this was certainly the game the Mets had to win. I am pretty disgusted and my hatred for the Braves only deepened. Tomorrow features Paul Blackburn against Chris Sale.
Here, here. I agree with your final sentiment. Disgusted is exactly right. Four baserunning mistakes! I agree with your take on Young too. We’ve seen enough. Alvarez is also disappointing. His swing looks worse all the time and he continues to be a defensive liability. He had a passed ball last week that let a run score that, to my way of thinking, was just being lazy or tired. Neither is acceptable. He flipped a backhand glove at a slider in the dirt. He should be throwing himself in front of that with a runner on third. Tonight was the same initial mistake, a lazy backhand, and an even more egregious mental error by throwing behind the lead runner. Torrens should be getting the majority of playing time at this point.
This 10 game stretch is critical and the Mets are back on their heels. Lindor needs to get hot again. Alvarez needs to sit. Baty or Mauricio needs to start hitting even a little. Yeah, I am disgusted too.
I just looked up Mets team ERA by catcher. Torrens has caught 290 innings and the staff ERA is 2.51. Alvarez has caught 270 innings and the staff era is essentially a run worse, at 3.49. Mets staff OPS for Torrens is .635 and for Alvy, .679.