Mets blow 6-run lead in latest ugly loss to Braves

New York Times

2 days ago

NEW YORK — By the time it was over, after 28 minutes and 53 pitches, after five walks and nine runs, the boos were as loud as they've been at Citi Field since early last season.
In the ugliest defeat of a season belatedly compiling them, the New York Mets blew an early 6-0 lead Wednesday to fall to the Atlanta Braves 11-6. A nine-run fourth inning, fueled by free passes, altered the direction of the game.
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After a 12th loss in 14 games, the Mets' lead on a playoff spot is down to a single game over the Cincinnati Reds.
'It sucks to lose a game when you're up six right away,' manager Carlos Mendoza said. 'We've had some tough ones.'
Early on, Citi Field was rollicking, a 95-minute rain delay failing to dim the enthusiasm built up by Tuesday's welcome-back win. A pair of three-run innings to start the game against former Met Carlos Carrasco put New York comfortably ahead.
Given recent events involving the rotation, you could be forgiven for harboring concern even with that lead. But then again, David Peterson was the starter on the hill for New York; he was the All-Star you could still pencil in for six innings, that you could still count on not to implode.
And then Peterson submitted his worst frame of the season — maybe his worst of the past two seasons. He started with a four-pitch leadoff walk, then walked the eighth and ninth hitters, the latter to bring home a run. After a bases-clearing double by Jurickson Profar cut the lead to two, he walked one more before his night was over.
'I was a little out of sync with my mechanics and wasn't able to dial it back in,' Peterson said.
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This is not the nine-deep Atlanta batting order that has haunted the Mets for several years. Without Ronald Acuña Jr. and Austin Riley, two of those walks came to Nacho Alvarez Jr. and Nick Allen — professionals, yes, but ones who have combined for zero home runs and 20 RBIs in more than 400 big-league plate appearances this season.
'Teams are going to make you pay for that at this level,' Mendoza said.
Peterson's short effort was the fourth time in the last 12 games — and third in the last four — that the Mets' starter failed to record an out beyond the fourth inning. Two weeks ago, New York lamented that its starters didn't go six innings enough. Now they can't even find the fifth.
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During this 2-12 stretch, Mets starters are averaging just over 4 1/3 innings per start. (That's counting Frankie Montas' three-inning appearance as a bulk pitcher behind an opener.)
'It's frustrating,' Peterson said. 'We're not holding up our end.'
The nightmare was not yet over. Reed Garrett could not provide relief. He yielded a single, his own walk, and Michael Harris II's two-out coup-de-grace grand slam to give Atlanta the lead.
In the past three games, the Mets have surrendered 16 runs — just in the fourth inning. They have blown leads of four, five and six in those games.
'We've got the coaches looking at everything, trying to figure out how we can help these guys,' Mendoza said. 'That's our job as coaches, to get these guys back on track because they're talented.'
Before the game, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said that, for the most part, each starter in the rotation had his own problem. For instance, the Mets have been working with Clay Holmes on his pitch usage, Sean Manaea on his pitch mechanics. But if there is one overarching theme as of late, it has been an allergy to pitching in the strike zone.
For so much of the season, the Mets' starters excelled because they put themselves in good counts. Ask a starter what was working for them, and they'd invariably use the word 'attack.' Throw pitches in the zone early in the at-bat, and you don't have to, to get outs later.
That has not been the case as of late. Holmes, in particular, has seen his percentage of pitches in the zone dip by 3 points since mid-June. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it's the difference between ranking almost exactly in the middle of the league and ranking in the bottom 10 percent.
Peterson typically throws more than 52 percent of his pitches in the zone. In that fourth, it was 7 of 29.
'Let's force them to swing the bat,' Hefner said before the game.
The Mets issued six walks on the night. All six scored.
'They're tough losses,' Mendoza said, 'but we've got to keep going.'
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