After a painful 5-1 loss on Friday, the Mets and Steven Matz squared off against Aaron Blair and the Braves on Saturday night. Matz’s last few starts had been mediocre, largely due to his struggles to command his fastballs making him more hittable. Blair, meanwhile, had been horrible for the Braves, pitching to a 7.59 ERA and a 5.68 FIP.
Both pitchers started out strong despite the aforementioned struggles. Matz worked around two walks (one intentional) and a double in the first two innings to keep the Braves off the board, notching two strikeouts in the process. Blair also struck out two, working around two hits and a walk, but also getting a bit lucky with some hard hit balls. The game remained scoreless through two innings.
Yoenis Cespedes broke the scoreless tie with his 17th home run in the third, giving the Mets a 1-0 lead. Wilmer Flores would follow an inning later with a solo shot of his own. A James Loney triple and a sac fly from Rene Rivera gave the Mets a 3-0 lead going to the fifth inning. It wouldn’t last.
Brandon Snyder (former first round pick of the Baltimore Orioles) lead off the fifth with a double. He advanced to third on a wild pitch, then scored on a two-out single from Chase d’Arnaud. In the bottom of the sixth, Jeff Francouer jumped on a first pitch change-up from Matz and deposited it deep in the left field seats, cutting the lead to 3-2. Matz would exit after six innings having struck out seven, walked two, and allowed two runs. His fastball command was much better than in his previous three starts, but still not quite where it was during his early season run of dominance.
Jim Henderson relieved Matz in the seventh and, on the first pitch he threw, surrendered a home run to Tyler Flowers that tied the game at three. Henderson retired the next batter, but then seemed to take himself out of the game during a visit from Dan Warthen. Henderson has been horribly managed and overused by Terry Collins and was sitting 90 and 91 on Saturday; postgame comments revealed he has a shoulder impingement – hardly the news an already extremely beat up Mets team needed to hear. Regardless, Jerry Blevins relieved Henderson and worked around a two-out single to end the top of the seventh with the game still tied.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Mets stayed true to form and wasted another opportunity with runners in scoring position. Loney led off with a walk and was bunted to second by Rivera. The Braves then brought in former Met lefty Dario Alvarez, who dispatched Kelly Johnson and Curtis Granderson to end the threat.
The top of the eighth went to Addison Reed, and he too allowed a leadoff extra base hit, this time a dobule to Ender Inciarte. After intentionally walking Freddie Freeman, Inciarte would advance on a shallow fly ball to right field when Granderson was slow to get the ball back in, then scored on a wild pitch that Rivera dropped while making the tag. The Braves had now scored in four straight innings and erased a three run deficit to take a one run lead.
You could probably predict what happened in the bottom of the eighth. Asdrubal Cabrera lead off with a single but Cespedes, Walker, and Matt Reynolds (pinch hitting for Conforto) failed to even advance him to second and the inning ended with the Braves still leading by a run. Jeurys Familia would keep it that way in the top of the ninth, setting down the Braves in order to give the Mets one last chance to avoid losing two straight to the worst team in the National League.
The Mets seemed well on their way to avoiding that loss. Flores reached on an error by Aybar, and Loney followed with a double to left center. Rather than second and third and no out, Tim Teufel gave a brutally bad send and Flores was out by a mile out home. The next batter, Ty Kelly, flew out to deep left center, deep enough to likely have scored Flores and tie the game. Instead, Granderson struck out looking and the Mets lost another one to the Braves.
Losing two straight to an awful, awful Atlanta team is obviously not what the Mets had in mind heading into this series. With the Nationals pulling away and a tough schedule in line before the All Star break, the Mets need to feast on the bottom dwellers as they wait for some of their injured players to return to the lineup. Worse yet, Steven Matz’s elbow tightened up again after the game, though Terry Collins did his best to down play the issue.
However, while this loss may be the worst of the season, the Met season is far from over. Both of the wild card spots are still well within the team’s grasp, and the Nationals’s lead in the division is not insurmountable. The next month or so is a critical stretch and may be tough to watch at times, but there’s no reason to give up on the 2016 Mets just yet.
Photo credit: Adam Hunger – USA Today Sports