NY Mets: What’s on the horizon following three-game sweep to Braves
After seeing their losing streak stretch to a season-long six games, here are a few things to watch for from the Mets in the coming weeks.
ATLANTA — The Mets entered Atlanta this week with the best record in the National League.
They head north to Philadelphia this weekend with serious concerns following a series sweep and sixth straight loss Thursday night.
The Mets found themselves in a world of hurt in the finale at Truist Park. They entered the fifth inning in a tie game and witnessed the bottom completely fall out in the next two innings.
The pitching staff buckled under the pressure of nine walks, allowing six runs between the two frames, and mounted little response offensively once again as they dropped a lopsided 7-1 result to the Braves in front of 39,234 fans at Truist Park.
“It’s definitely not ideal. We know that. But I think you look around and see effort and see the preparation,” Mets starter Clay Holmes said. “At the end of the day, keeping those things, we’ll come out of it. We’re a lot of good players in here and it’s going to take all of us.
“It’s going to take pitching, hitting — it’s not going to be one guy or one thing that gets us through this. It’s going to be everything coming together.”
Braves strike first blow against Mets
Before the Mets had departed Flushing early this week, they made it clear that they were not going to be lured into a sense of overconfidence based on the Braves’ record of 31-39. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza cautioned that the Braves were “a good team.”
Following the series, both teams appear headed in different directions.
The Mets and Phillies are now tied atop the National League East at 45-30 and will begin a three-game series on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park. The Braves are still lingering 10 games back but proving that they are very much a threat.
“We didn’t play good enough baseball all around this time through,” Brandon Nimmo said. “Just because we didn’t have success this time doesn’t mean that the next time we show up here that we can’t bounce right back and have success at this place. I just think we didn’t play our best baseball and they played very well.”
Mets starting rotation in flux
Before Thursday loss, the Mets had intentions of using right-hander Justin Hagenman, who they called up earlier in the afternoon, to make Friday’s start against the Phillies. Those plans needed to be altered after Holmes needed a career-high 104 pitches to work through 4⅔ innings and Huascar Brazoban came on in the fifth inning and matters got worse.
The righty reliever issued a bases-loaded walk in the fifth and then loaded the bases with an infield single and two more free passes in the sixth. Matt Olson ended Brazoban’s night with a three-run double into the right-field corner that grew the Braves’ lead to 6-1.
It was then that Mendoza called upon Hagenman to try and record the final two outs in the inning. After allowing an RBI single, Hagenman closed the game with 2⅔ scoreless innings in a key spot.
“Once Brazoban got in trouble there in the sixth inning, we didn’t have much,” Mendoza said. “We needed to probably use the whole bullpen there. That was one of the reasons we brought Hagenman here for today’s game for a scenario like that. We shot him there. He was able to finish the game and protect a couple of the other guys.”
The Mets rotation, which is now missing four arms, including more recently with Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill, has floundered for the first time this season and the club has felt the squeeze. Blade Tidwell will now make his second career start on Friday night against the Phillies.
After leaving three runners stranded in the first three scoreless innings, Holmes walked Olson to lead off the fourth inning and then a pair of singles, including an RBI single by Ozzie Albies, tied the score.
The fifth inning was where things truly unraveled for Holmes. He loaded the bases with two walks and a single before freezing Marcell Ozuna on a sinker. Drake Baldwin battled to a eight-pitch walk to put the Braves ahead 2-1 before Brazoban added fuel to the fire.
Holmes walked a career-high six batters, allowed four hits and allowed three earned runs.
“Obviously the walks, they hurt us there tonight,” Holmes said. “Especially that last inning, we walk that many, eventually it’s hard to avoid the big inning. The leadoff walk hurt there, with Acuna getting on and Riley hit a good sinker, but at the end, I think it forced me to throw a lot more pitches and didn’t execute when I needed to there at the end.”
Mets offense in a massive rut
The Mets offense went dormant after the fifth inning of the series opener on Tuesday night.
Over the final 23 innings of the series — after opening a 4-1 lead in the opener that they would relinquish — the Mets only scratched across one run and were outscored 16-1 by the Braves.
Ronny Mauricio supplied the only run during Thursday’s loss, blooping in an RBI single to score Tyrone Taylor and provide the Mets with a short-lived 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning.
After picking up three hits in the first two innings against Spencer Strider, the Mets were held to two hits over the final six innings on Thursday night, with Nimmo lacing a double into the left-field corner and being stranded at third in the inning and Starling Marte doubling in the ninth.
“I thought the first time through we put together some really good at-bats, but then we started chasing,” Mendoza said. “We couldn’t do much after that. (Strider) kept going, made us chase and that was the key there.”
During the Mets’ losing streak, the Mets are 6-for-42 with runners in scoring position.
“You can’t try and do it all at once. You can’t try and go out and hit a five-run home run. It doesn’t exist,” Nimmo said “You just try and start small. Try and win the battles that you go up there and control, which is strike one, strike two and try to stay in the zone.”