The Mets fell behind early and couldn't complete the comeback effort in Friday's 9-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field.
Here are some key takeaways…
1. The first inning was a nightmare for Taijuan Walker and the Mets. Walker caught his right spike in the mound while delivering a pitch, resulting in a pitch rolling towards home plate and a visit from the training staff. Fortunately for the Mets, Walker avoided any kind of serious injury, but the Braves then jumped on him for four runs via an RBI double from Matt Olson and a three-run homer from Eddie Rosario.
Luis Guillorme also committed a rare error in an inning to forget for the home team. The Mets nearly answered back in the bottom of the first, but a Pete Alonso deep drive to right was snagged by a leaping Ronald Acuna Jr., robbing what likely would have been a two-run homer.
2. Walker’s tough start carried into the second inning, as Michael Harris II got things started with a solo homer to left. After another RBI hit by Dansby Swanson and another Olson knock to put runners on the corners with nobody out, Buck Showalter was forced to pull Walker from the game, going to Trevor Williams much earlier than he would have liked.
Williams allowed both inherited runners to score, capping Walker’s final line at 1.0 inning-plus, eight earned runs on seven hits, with no strikeouts, no walks, and two homers given up. His ERA jumped from 2.79 to 3.45.
3. In the second inning, the Mets loaded the bases against Ian Anderson, and Brandon Nimmo cashed in with an RBI single to center field, but Guillorme was also waved home by third base coach Joey Cora, and Harris threw a bullet home for the third out of the inning, derailing a potential big inning for the Mets.
4. A Jeff McNeil RBI single in the fifth made it 8-2, and with two runners on and two outs, that would end Anderson’s night. The Braves went to lefty Dylan Lee, so the Mets turned to the newly acquired Darin Ruf. In his first at-bat as a Met, Ruf drove a ball off the wall in right field for a two-run double, cutting the Braves’ lead to 8-4.
Eduardo Escobar followed that up with another huge pinch-hit RBI, singling home Ruf and making it an 8-5 game.
5. Give Williams a ton of credit, as he did a tremendous job of eating up innings to help save the Mets bullpen over the remainder of this five-game series. Williams went 4.0 innings, allowing four hits without an earned run, walking one and striking out two.
The Mets also used Joely Rodriguez, Mychal Givens, and Tommy Hunter out of the pen, and only Hunter allowed a run (a solo home run to William Contreras in the ninth inning). All in all, the Mets quartet of relievers pitched eight innings of one-run ball.
6. McNeil added a solo home run with two outs in the ninth, but the Braves held on for the win. McNeil, Nimmo, and Francisco Lindor had multi-hit nights for the Mets, while Acuna hada four-hit night for Atlanta.