THE RUNDOWN
Julio Teheran nearly threw a perfect game against the Mets lineup to complete Atlanta’s sweep.
A SHAKY START
Jacob deGrom had every reason to be confident on Sunday, his 28th birthday and his first Father’s Day as a dad. He was facing the National League’s worst team by record, its third-worst performer by third order winning percentage, and its second-worst lineup by TAv. He had pitched to a 1.57 ERA and 3.8 K/BB ratio in 154.2 career innings in day games.
Yet, despite all this, deGrom didn’t come out armed with his sharpest stuff. His fastball was a tick under the 94 mph that it’s averaged this season, and his curveball didn’t have quite the same bite. deGrom survived the first two innings without giving up a run, allowing just one baserunner and striking out three along the way, but it wasn’t easy. He labored, throwing 19 pitches in each inning, although he was helped out by this tremendous play by Wilmer Flores:
The Mets didn’t give Teheran nearly the same trouble, cruising through the first six batters in 25 pitches. Although he only struck out two of them, only one batter even hit the ball out of the infield.
ALL THE OFFENSE THE BRAVES WOULD NEED
deGrom’s struggles would catch up with him in the third inning as he plunked Erick Aybar to lead off the third inning. Teheran dropped a sacrifice bunt to advance Aybar to second, who subsequently went to third on a deep Mallex Smith flyout. Ender Inciarte, who used the weekend series to raise his OPS from .603 to .620, drove in the first run of the game by nailing a first pitch fastball to right field.
That wasn’t all the Braves would get, as Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis knocked two more singles on deGrom fastballs, allowing Inciarte to come around to score and put the Braves up by two. After a four-pitch walk to Tyler Flowers, deGrom calmed down enough to induce a groundout from Jace Peterson.
In the bottom of the inning, the Mets would show the only piece of offense they would muster all day, as Michael Conforto singled up the middle on one of just five three-ball counts Teheran would reach on a batter all day. The Braves pitcher bounced back with a strikeout of Kevin Plawecki, the first of 21 consecutive batters that Teheran would subsequently retire. Teheran’s fastball was cooking all day, averaging 93-94 mph instead of his usual 92-93.
The fourth and fifth innings went off without a hitch for deGrom, as he needed only 19 pitches to get through both innings without allowing a baserunner. However, trouble would strike in the top of the sixth inning. when Nick Markakis launched a changeup up and over the plate into the bullpen to extend the lead to 3-0. deGrom finished off Flowers, Peterson, and Chase d’Arnaud to finish his day, but the damage was done.
PILING IT ON
Antonio Bastardo relieved deGrom in the seventh inning. In the past month, Bastardo has moved away from using his fastball with the more than 65% frequency he has hurled it over his eight-year career, instead throwing it 54% of the time and trusting his slider and changeup more often. However, he’s been awful. In 11 innings, he’s given up 9 runs. His opponents’ BABIP has only been .300. The issue has stemmed from a little bit of everything — allowing a few more hits than usual, a few more walks than usual and a few more home runs than usual.
Bastardo continued to have problems, even against the lowly Braves, giving up a leadoff double to Aybar and then another sacrifice bunt to Teheran. Bastardo then hit Smith on the hand with a pitch, and balked to allow Aybar to score and Smith to advance to second. Two batters, later, Freddie Freeman collected his third hit of the day by knocking in Smith with a double for a 5-0 lead.
After another perfect inning by Teheran, Hansel Robles entered the game. Aside from back-to-back appearances in late May in which he allowed three runs each, Robles has been solid. On Sunday, however, he was very hit or miss in the eighth inning. Flowers struck out before Peterson and d’Arnaud singled. Aybar then struck out and Julio Teheran singled. Before the crowd could find out what the next at-bat would bring—strikeout or single—Robles chucked a breaking ball into the dirt, which Plawecki blocked but bounced up the first-base line, allowing Peterson to dash home to extend the lead to 6-0.
The Mets would do nothing in the bottom of the inning, and Robles pitched a scoreless ninth, allowing only Freddie Freeman’s fourth hit of the game. The Mets finished their day at the plate in the bottom of the ninth the same way it began—a Curtis Granderson flyout—to end the game.
NOTES
-The Mets have been one-hit once before this season. Who did it to them? None other than the Braves, who shut the Mets out on May 3.
-The Mets are off today, but they’ll continue at home on Tuesday against Ian Kennedy and the Royals. Noah Syndergaard will take the hill.
Photo credit: Anthony Gruppuso – USA Today Sports