THE RUNDOWN
The Mets provided some fireworks late, but it wasn’t enough to avoid wasting a great start by Bartolo Colon and a second straight Sunday loss to the Braves.
A PITCHER’S DUEL
The Mets faced Bud Norris, who entered the game sporting a 4.69 ERA in 63.1 innings this season. Norris has had his ups and downs in 2016, but he’s been on the upswing recently. After starting the year in the rotation, he gave up 16 runs in 21.1 innings and was demoted to the bullpen, where he allowed a further 10 runs in 19.2 innings. However, Norris has had four solid starts since rejoining the rotation in early June, allowing just seven runs in 22.1 innings while striking out 21.
Norris’s improvement seems due in part to some newfound velocity. In his past four starts, the 31-year-old has been able to reach back for something extra, averaging more than a full mile per hour more with his fastball than he did in his first 41 innings of the season (94.7 vs. 93.6, respectively) while throwing more strikes. Norris has also picked up nearly an inch more of downward action on his slider over those four starts.
The righty came out again flashing his newly enhanced repertoire against the Mets on Sunday, blowing a 94-mile-per-hour fastball by Kelly Johnson to begin the game. Norris then left Matt Reynolds fishing for a slider for his second punchout, and then fired another slider and two 95-mile-per-hour fastballs by Yoenis Cespedes to strike out the side in the top of the first.
Bartolo’s been on a solid streak of his own. On the mound for the first time since leaving his last start only four pitches in after being hit on the thumb by a comebacker, Colon looked to continue a string of good outings that has seen him give up just 7 earned runs in 33 innings dating back to May 23. However, the big man looked a bit shaky to start the game. He worked with somewhat reduced velocity, throwing his two-seamer in the mid 80s rather than its usual high 80s and his four seamer just under 90 rather than its usual 90-91.
As such, the Braves came out swinging. On Colon’s second pitch, Jace Peterson took the ball the other way, driving a ball to deep left field which Johnson was able to haul in on the warning track. After an easy flyout to left, Freddie Freeman nailed the first pitch he saw — an 87 mile-per-hour fastball — into the left field seats to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Nick Markakis followed with a double to right field. The inning only ended when Neil Walker saved what would’ve been an Adonis Garcia single and likely RBI when he dove to snare a liner for the third out of the inning.
On the game’s very next pitch, however, Garcia took some revenge when he made an over-the-shoulder grab on a Walker pop fly when action resumed in the top of the second.
Norris retired the next two Mets, and Colon reciprocated with a 1-2-3 inning of his own in the bottom of the second. After the shaky first inning in which the Braves smacked four hard hit balls off of Bartolo, he settled down, inducing 10 ground ball outs over the next six innings. Bartolo had little trouble with the Braves — except for Freeman, who knocked two more hits for his first three-hit game since last Sunday against the Mets, in which he collected four.
Norris easily dealt with the Mets’ lineup as well. Norris’s stuff was working all day, as he struck out eight, and his control was impeccable, as he walked none. The Mets would scratch a single here or there — a Rene Rivera hit here, a Kelly Johnson knock there — but only were able to get multiple runners on base in the fifth. James Loney and Wilmer Flores hit back-to-back singles to left field. Brandon Nimmo, in his first major league start, grounded into a force out, but that still left runners on first and third with one out. However, Norris now faced the bottom of the Mets order, and he easily struck out Rivera and Colon on three pitches each to end the inning.
THAT BASTARDO!
Norris and Colon each finished out the seventh inning, leaving the game 1-0. After a 1-2-3 inning by Jim Johnson in the top of the eighth, Antonio Bastardo relieved Colon in the bottom of the inning. Suffice it to say, Bastardo hasn’t been good recently. Since his struggles began on May 18 with 0.2-inning, 2-run outing against the Nationals, in 13 innings, Bastardo has given up a lot of hits (16), a lot of runs (11), a lot of home runs (4) and a lot of walks (8).
The Mets hoped that Bastardo could build off of the clean outing he put together on Friday in which he allowed a hit but also struck out Freddie Freeman. That, however would not be the case. In three batters, Bastardo:
- Gave up a single to Inciarte
- Balked, allowing Inciarte to advance to second
- Walked Freeman
- Allowed a single to Nick Markakis, which scored Inciarte.
Logan Verrett then replaced Bastardo, mercifully, it seemed, until Adonis Garcia turned around a fastball over the middle of the plate into the sparsely populated left field stands for a 3-run home run to open the Braves’ lead to 5-0.
Verrett escaped the inning despite giving up a few more hard-hit balls, and the Mets had one more half inning to climb out of their newly-deepened hole.
ONE LAST GASP
Reynolds started off the ninth with the most life the Mets’ bats showed all day, hitting a deep flyball to center field off of Alexi Ogando that was scored a double and an error after an Inciarte fumble allowed Reynolds to get all the way around to third. Reynolds scored the first run of the game on a Cespedes groundout. Walker populated the bases once again, hitting a double to right field. Two batters later, he scored on a Flores single to tighten the game to 5-2.
Nimmo then stepped up to the plate, needing to get on base to keep the game alive. Batting against Arodys Vizcaino, who had just replaced Ogando, Nimmo took two balls before fouling off four 97-mile-per-hour fastballs and one slider. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, though, Vizcaino caught Nimmo looking at another fastball down and in for the final out of the game.
NOTES
-This was the fifth straight Sunday loss for the Mets. They’ve scored seven runs over those five games.
-Mets fans will cross their fingers that Noah Syndergaard doesn’t feel another twinge in his arm as the team takes on the Nationals tonight at 7:05.
Photo credit: Dale Zanine – USA Today Sports