The Mets knocking off the Atlanta Braves four out of five games at Citi Field in a series that took place from Aug. 4 through Aug. 7 seems so long ago, in no small measure resulting from the Braves outscoring the Mets 18-1 in Games 1 and 2 of the team’s four game series in Atlanta this week that began on Monday. The Braves pounded the Mets 13-1 in the series opener and shut them out 5-0 on Tuesday.
“You’re going to have series that don’t go your way,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said pragmatically after Tuesday’s victory regarding being handled by the Mets in Queens. “There’s nothing you can do about it. Just fight through it.”
The third game took place last night (Wednesday) with Max Scherzer on the mound for the Mets and Jacob deGrom set to pitch in tonight’s series finale. The Mets went into yesterday’s matchup 75-30, the second best record in Major League Baseball behind the 80-35 Los Angeles Dodgers.
However, they were being hounded by the Braves, who were on an eight-game winning streak and at 72-46 trailed the Mets by only 3.5 games. Mets starter Tijuan Walker, who is 10-3 this season with a 3.36 ERA, was forced to exit Tuesday’s game after pitching two innings and allowing just one hit because of back tightness.
“I tried to bend over. When I tried to come back up, it just locked up on me,” Walker said. “I’ve never had anything like this before. The training staff is not too concerned about it. So I’ll get an MRI tomorrow and kind of see how I feel.”
Conversely, Braves starter Charlie Morton was dominant, throwing 6 2/3 innings, striking out 12, walking one batter and giving up a stingy three hits. In Monday’s beatdown, the Braves jumped on Mets starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco for three runs in the first two innings—Carrasco had to endure a 55 minute rain delay in the second—and piled on the Mets’ relievers, particularly Adonis Medina, cracking him for five runs in 1.1 innings.
Carrasco (13-5, 3.92 ERA) left the game at the end of the second inning with an oblique strain and is projected to be out 3-4 weeks.
The Mets will face the Philadelphia Phillies for four games on the road tomorrow through Sunday, including a doubleheader on Saturday, then meet the Yankees for two games in the Bronx next Monday and Tuesday.