On paper, the pitching matchup of Charlie Morton vs. Jerad Eickhoff clearly favored the visiting Braves, and in this case, form held as the Braves buried the Mets 12-5 in Flushing. Atlanta jumped off to a six-run lead by scoring 2 runs in each of the first three innings. The Mets scored a run of their own in the third on Pete Alonso’s RBI single. The Braves then put the game out of reach in the fourth inning as Austin Riley rocketed a 432-foot grand slam into the upper deck in left, making the score 10-1 at that point.
Jeff McNeill did hit a two run homer in the fifth, but Austin Riley hit his second homer of the game to restore the 10 run lead. Brandon Drury’s pinch-hit two-run four-bagger in the seventh closed out the scoring with the final tally being 12-5 Braves.
Eickhoff lasted just 3.1 innings, yielding 10 R on 7 H, three of them homers. His ERA is now 8.69, and few would be surprised if he never started another game for the Mets. Morton pitched an efficient five innings to pick up the win. The Braves ace improved his record to 10-3.
Had one of the Mets other starters working, five runs might have been enough for the win. As it is the Braves hold a 2-1 edge in this series with two more games to go.
If you haven’t read Vasilis Drimalitus’s article this morning on Amazin’ Avenue, you should. He perfectly encapsulate the frustration we Mets fans have with this front office. While not criminal, it is totally without conscious that they are giving away games to division rivals in this manner. And it was embarrassing to have to hear Rojas defend this front office after last nights debacle. “No choice” my foot!
One can only hope that our Metsies can manage to win one of the remaining two games with the embolden Braves team.
It was certainly frustrating to watch Eickhoff throw beach balls up there.
But the last thing I wanted this front office to do was to overpay to fill in for one start. A better argument could have been made to trade for a guy at the start of the 33 games in 31 days – or whatever the number was – then the past week. They’ve got Hill and they’ve got Carrasco and deGrom coming back soon. If you’re going to trade for a SP, it has to be a clear upgrade on Megill. And that’s going to cost you. For me, this is not the time to push all of the chips into the pot.
Agree with Brian. They really didn’t have another good option last night. And they knew it was the last of these TBA games. They sacrificed 1 game in order to hold onto whatever chips they need for Friday. I trust Zack Scott.