On Sunday night, the Atlanta Braves’ 5-3 defeat of the New York Mets all but guaranteed that New York will be hosting the Wild Card Series.
The loss on Sunday, which saw the Braves take the season series over the Mets via a sweep this weekend, saw most of the offensive action happen in the first three innings. Oddly enough in this game the Braves, who have been known this season as a team that will defeat you by slugging home runs, reversed roles with the Mets. After Dansby Swanson put the Braves up 1-0 in the bottom of the first with a solo home run to continue his scorching-hot series against the Mets, Daniel Vogelbach evened up the score with a solo shot of his own in the top of the second.
The top of the third saw another Met home run, as Jeff McNeil laced his eighth home run of the season to put the Mets up 2-1. In the same inning, Vogelbach again produced a run for the Mets, driving in Pete Alonso to put them up 3-1. Those three runs would be all that the Mets could muster.
In the bottom of the third, the Braves answered back decisively. Chris Bassitt, who joined Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer for the theme of Mets starters not having their “A” game this weekend, got into trouble with two outs by loading the bases on a pitch that hit Austin Riley with Orlando Arcia on third and Ronald Acuna Jr. on second. He proceeded to walk Matt Olson to cut the lead to 3-2, and then served a curveball for Travis d’Arnaud to deliver the death blow on a single up the middle, scoring Acuna Jr. and Riley. That would be all for Bassitt, who took the loss on 2.2 innings pitched, with four earned runs, three walks, and two strikeouts.
In the following innings, the Mets proceeded to get baserunners (they outpaced the Braves in hits 11-5 in the game), but they simply could not muster an effort to capitalize on the opportunities provided. Outside of a stellar game from McNeil, who was 3-5 on the game, the top of the Mets lineup did not fare well on the evening. Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, and Francisco Lindor combined to go 2-12 at the top of the order, with four runners left on base between them.
Now that their destiny is out of their hands, the Mets will welcome the Washington Nationals to Citi Field for a somber three-game series. There will be a lot of questions heading into the series, including how much Fransisco Alvarez will be utilized. While he looked solid in his final at-bat against the Braves (working the count to 3-2 before grounding out to the second baseman), he looked outmatched in just about every other at bat he had against the Braves. How he plays against the Nationals could determine whether or not he gets to crack the postseason roster.
The Mets would have been in prime position to win the NL East if they came away with one victory against the Atlanta Braves, but they failed to do so. With their sights on righting the ship before a likely Wild Card series, the Mets will face Cory Abbott of the Nationals at 7:10 pm. Carlos Carrasco will take the mound for the Mets, making his final audition for the fourth spot in the postseason rotation.
Some post mortem thoughts on this critical series. Strong SP and offensive grinding was their formula all year and it cracked these past few games.
Bassitt was notably overcome by the pressure and was overthrowing.
Canha also seemed to let the pressure affect him on the basepaths, as he was far too timid in multiple situations of not taking the extra base against Braves defensive miscues.
SP this last turn in the rotation against Miami and Atlanta : 22.1 IP, 7.25 ERA. Only 1 QS which was the bare minimum.
Without going thru the game logs i would bet this is the worst 5 game stretch by the Mets SP all season. Talk about falling flat on their faces.
4 walks. The Mets only drew 4 walks this series, their lowest output in any 3+ game series this year.
This is a team that relies on grinding ABs which usually results in walks (avg of 3.1 per game) which can start/extend rallies and tiring pitchers and the Mets couldn’t do that which led to the less than stellar offensive output.
But it also didn’t help that every time the offense did generate a lead, it was almost immediately coughed up by the SP. As a fan that felt demoralizing and i imagine that rubbed off on the hitters which could have impacted the pressing/lack of scoring after the midpoint of the games.
Name, you have summed it up perfectly. I enjoyed your Chatter last night. Many of these points , you brought up “live” as they occurring.
Also, they missed Marte . His clutch hitting, fine defense and his speed were surely missed.
I hope you score tickets to the playoffs. Believe me, It would be a memorable experience for you. I’m rooting for you.
Well; Buck might as well “rest” his starters like Alonso & Lindor against Washington……
“Mets gonna Met,” as someone once said here. Demoralizing, but they can make it all up with a great postseason run. At least we get the chance to attend 2-3 Wild Card games in NY.
Sadly we got beat by a better club. Their starters were on game and when it looked like we were going to knock a Morton out, he came back and did it to us. Giving up 4-5 runs should not have been a recipe for losing but failing so often with ducks on the pond certainly was. Looking back to getting swept by the lowly Cubs has some saying we should never have been in this position where the division was not wrapped up. The Braves would have swept them. And that’s the difference between the great year we are having winning nearly every series and the Braves being able to rattle off multiple winning streaks that helps augment winning most series. We had one 7 game winning streak.
So now out comes my half full glass. Sure we are disappointed, but how many of us realistically thought we would be this good in year 2 of the Cohen makeover?? Not me. 85 wins would have been a good season. No Jake most of the season, and players getting hit at a record pace and missing multiple games. Unlike the Braves, we really had no position players to bring up from the minors and they brought up a CF and 2B who hit .300 and fielded their position quite nicely. They had a rookie pitcher step up and shine while our youngsters were hit and miss. Then to have our big three all pitch off games when we needed their average starts was a killer. We have no running game outside of Lindor but we small balled our way to 98 wins as Lindor and Alonso were often pitched around. So there is more work to be done to snag a flag this year. One school of thought would be to rest some starters against the Nats but if we lose a few more games in the standings and don’t gain momentum going into the wild card series how will that effect our psyche? I’d throw Petersen in game three against the Nats and then set up our big three for the playoffs. It ain’t over until it’s over. It’s been a great season and anyone can catch lightning in a bottle on the post season. When all is said and done we will have a much better idea of where we need to head in year three of the Cohen rebuild. Keep the faith. LGM
Really disappointing series. All we needed was one win . Mets were completely outplayed. Let’s hope the hangover doesn’t continue in the short wild card round.
Braves really look like they could run the table and win another championship.
This series by all measures could have been, should have been, meaningless. The Mets dropped the ball with the Chicago series, then deGrom shit the bed in Oakland, then lost 2 with the nationals all in Sept. This series, which was always going to be a bruiser didnt need to have any signficance.
Yet the total Jeckyll and Hyde offense – win big or cant hit – has turned the easiest month of the season into total carnage. The fact is this team cannot send out Groundout Guillorme and James McCant and some lame ass DH out there every day and hope that 1/3 of the line up will magically do better than going 2 for 12 and hitting into 3 DPs. Comes to October, that’s what losing looks like. Add to the fact that the top of the line up is just giving you shit singles and well there aint much to be happy with.
Frustrating to watch the poor mechanics on the mound and the poor approaches at the plate.
Hopefully, these will improve in the playoffs.
It’s early to speculate, but I’m wondering if Cohen will outbid everyone for Aaron Judge to add much-needed power!
I’m getting a bit old to keep waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Yes, the Braves are better and it showed. That said, with choking up the season long divisional lead at the wire, I’ll feel like this season was a failure if they don’t get to the World Series.