The Mets let a three-run lead slip in the eighth before falling in 10 innings to the Braves, 5-4, on Tuesday night in Atlanta. New York has now lost four straight.
David Peterson cruised through seven innings, but allowed the first two men to reach in the eighth before he was lifted, and the bullpen allowed three runs to score to doom the lefty to a no-decision.
And in the bottom of the 10th after the Mets failed to score, Carlos Mendoza walked Ronald Acuña Jr. intentionally to put runners on first and second in a tie game. Huascar Brazobán got Alex Verdugo on an infield fly before more sloppy baseball hurt the Mets.
On a ball in the dirt that Francisco Alvarez couldn’t backhand cleanly, the runner at second, Luke Williams, was stopped halfway to third. If the catcher ran at him or threw to third, it would have been the second out. Instead, Alvarez quickly tossed to second and the winning run was at third. A walk loaded the bases, and on the first pitch to Austin Riley, he drove a sacrifice fly to the warning track in deep right-center to end the game.
Here are the takeaways...
- Pitching with a lead right away, Peterson walked the leadoff hitter, but got some help from his defense as Pete Alonso made a fine play on a sharp grounder, starting a 3-6 double play when Acuña gave up on the rundown, not wanting to risk cutting back and forth on his knees this close to coming back from a second ACL tear.
Peterson put himself in a tough spot with two down in the third after issuing a walk and an opposite-field single. And after falling behind 3-1 to Matt Olson, the lefty made a good pitch, but it was muscled into center to score the Braves' first run. The lefty limited the damage, but saw his scoreless inning streak snapped at 15.2.
Through five innings, the lefty was giving his infielders a workout, as he got 12 of 15 outs on 10 ground balls. The other outs: Michael Harris II swinging twice on down-and-away sliders and Acuña flying out to center.
The defense, which had been faultless, bit Peterson to start the seventh, as Ronny Mauricio’s low throw to first went for a two-base error. It was an unforced mistake, as Marcell Ozuna was loafing to first. But Peterson got the next three batters with a pair of lineouts around a pop-up to first.
- Peterson came back out for the eighth, but his command didn’t, as he allowed a leadoff walk and a single. Mendoza brought in Reed Garrett (on a week of rest), and the pinch-hitter Verdugo got a single to right to load the bases and put the tying run on first with nobody out.
Garrett rebounded to get Olson looking at a 1-2 splitter that just caught the outside corner, and Riley to flyout to shallow right. But he threw a hanging 2-2 splitter to Ozuna, and he cleared the bases with a double into the left field corner.
Peterson's final line: 7.0 innings, three runs, five hits, three walks, three strikeouts in 93 pitches (55 strikes).
Francisco Lindor may have had a slight chance to get Verdugo at the plate to keep the Mets ahead, but dropped the ball as he went for the transfer on the relay and the game was tied heading to the ninth.
- Edwin Diaz needed 17 pitches for a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout to send the game to extra innings. But in the top of the 10th with Luisangel Acuña on second as the ghost runner, Jarred Young went down swinging, Alvarez popped out to shallow right, and Mauricio popped out to the shortstop in shallow left against Atlanta righty Raisel Iglesias, who entered the game with a 6.23 ERA in 26 innings.
- Braves starter Spencer Schwellenbach had the Mets’ number in his previous three games, allowing just nine hits in 73 at-bats (.123) and a .341 OPS with 20 strikeouts and one walk. But the visitors flipped the switch on the right-hander earlier.
With two down in the first, Juan Soto drove a slider that floated over the middle of the plate for a 412-foot opposite-field home run. The signature Soto blast (108.4 mph off the bat) was good for his 14th dinger and 37th RBI of the year.
In the second, Jeff McNeil extended his on-base streak to 19 games by smacking a curveball over the plate for a single to right to start the inning. The big at-bat came when Alvarez worked a one-out walk, after falling behind 0-2 on two whiffs. With two down, Tyrone Taylor lofted a 2-0 fastball into shallow right, but Acuña -- and his bad knees -- couldn’t reach it with a head-first dive and two runs scored on the double.
In the fifth, Taylor, after falling behind in the count 0-2, got a splitter up and clobbered it 407 feet to right for a solo shot, giving him two on the year and 15 RBI.
Schwellenbach managed to work around the four runs to go seven innings, allowing six hits and two walks while getting eight strikeouts.
- The Mets ran themselves out of the third as Soto walked with one out, only to get picked off first (1-3-4) when he started for second and Schwellenbach managed to step off the mound in time. Three pitches later, Alonso lined a slider (105.9 mph) toward the left-field corner and dug for second but was cut down easily as Eli White got to the ball in a flash and made a decent throw to end the inning.
Bad luck got them in the sixth, as Soto lined one sharply to left (100.6 mph), but it was the first out. After Alonso cracked his second single of the game, McNeil roped one (97.9 mph) right at the shortstop, who was able to double Alonso off first with a good throw to end the inning. The two hits that made three outs carried an xBA of .450 and .600.
The combo of bad luck and bad baserunning stung in the top half of the ninth. Soto smashed a single (110.5 mph) into right to start the inning, and Alonso drove one deep to right and Acuña -- bad knees and all -- ranged back to the wall and for a leaping catch. Unfortunately, Soto didn't get a read on the ball or the catch, and was easily doubled off first as he was a dozen feet from second as Acuña started tossing the ball in.
Highlights
What's next
The Mets and Braves are right back at it on Wednesday night in Atlanta for a 7:15 p.m. first pitch.
Right-hander Paul Blackburn gets the ball for New York with left-hander Chris Sale starting for the home team.
