Gut Reaction: Braves 8 Mets 2 (4/26/17)

After Tuesday’s rainout, there was talk of skipping Robert Gsellman’s start and having Noah Syndergaard go instead. That meant Gsellman would have pitched this coming weekend in Washington against the red hot Nationals. Thank goodness the Mets’ brain trust changed their minds. Gsellman didn’t have stuff or command and was cuffed about in the first inning by the Braves, who broke a six game losing streak.

Perhaps the long layoff did the Mets some harm, as they looked disorganized and disinterested the whole game. The defense was execrable: the Mets committed three errors in the first three innings. It started with the very first batter, Ender Inciarte. Gsellman didn’t get the call on a couple of close pitches, and it seemed to unnerve him, as Inciarte walked on five pitches to start things off. With Inciarte on the move, Brandon Phillips knocked a ball through the vacated second base hole. He was gunned down by Travis d’Arnaud trying to steal, and you thought maybe the Mets might be alright after all. Fat chance. Freddy Freeman walked and Matt Kemp shot a base hit to right field as Inciarte scored. Nick Markakis singled to left and Braves’ third base coach inexplicably waved Freeman home against the shotgun arm of Yoenis Cespedes. Cespedes’s throw beat him to the plate, but was slightly off line to the third base side and Freeman snuck his hand in under d’Arnaud’s tag — another bad break because the initial call was out, but replay gave the Braves their second run. Adonis Garcia hit a one-hopper back to the mound, but Gsellman threw wide of first and everybody was safe. That brought up Tyler Flowers who sent a laser-beam double into right field and it was 5-0, Braves, before Gsellman had retired a batter.

As Warner Wolf used to say, “You could’ve turned your sets off right there.”

For their part, the Mets could do nothing against Julio Teheran, as per usual. The lone bright spot for the offensive offense was Jay Bruce, who went two-for-two with two walks. He was part of a Mets rally, but even that was dissatisfying. Asdrubal Cabrera led off the fourth by drawing a walk. Cespedes got the Mets’ first hit with dribbler through shortstop. Bruce followed that with a single to short right. The Mets had the bases loaded, nobody out and should have had Teheran reeling. Neil Walker hit a sacrifice fly to right, but that was it. Curtis Granderson hit a soft liner to short and d’Arnaud flew out to shallow right. They scored another in similar fashion, on a d’Arnaud single, a base hit by Jose Reyes and a sacrifice fly by Rene Rivera. By then, though, the Braves had tacked on three more runs and the Mets’ scoring was rendered moot.

Day game tomorrow. Noah Syndergaard versus R. A. Dickey. If there was ever a time for an ace…