Mets swept by Braves as NL East title hopes turn bleak
ATLANTA — The one scenario the Mets needed to avoid in their three-game weekend series against the Braves was getting swept.
Surely a team that led the NL East almost all season would steal at least one victory in enemy territory and head home with a chance to clinch the division, right?
Not these Mets.
A third straight disappointing performance from a top starting pitcher coupled with an underwhelming offensive attack left the Mets all but finished in the NL East race following a 5-3 loss to the Braves on Sunday night.
The Braves, with the sweep, moved two games ahead of the Mets in the division and own the tiebreaker based on a 10-9 advantage in the season series. Either a Mets loss or Braves victory over the final three games of the regular season will officially clinch a fifth straight division title for Atlanta.
“It doesn’t feel the best, but we still have three games remaining in the regular season, we are still going to the postseason, that doesn’t change,” Pete Alonso said. “But there’s a lot of learning points that we can take from this series moving forward.”
Alonso was asked about the learning points to which he referred.
“For me I feel this is the closest thing to a playoff atmosphere and also I feel we did a good job with getting hits, but if we get a couple more timely hits in big spots … and honestly we played great defense and they just flat out beat us this weekend.”
The Braves finish with three games in Miami. The Mets will play three at home against Washington.
It means the Mets — stuck on 98 victories — can likely start preparing for a weekend best-of-three wild-card series against the Padres or Phillies at Citi Field. Should the Mets advance from there they would face the Dodgers in the NLDS.
“Our guys have answered a lot of challenges and will again,” manager Buck Showalter said. “They are going to get a chance to roll the dice in October regardless and if I know these guys they will feed off the last three days and be better as the result of it.
“I am proud of everything they have done. This is not conditional. It’s unconditional, the support, and if I know these guys they will rebound and make somebody feel their pain.”
Chris Bassitt joined Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer in failing to deliver for the Mets. Bassitt struggled with control and lasted only 2 ²/₃ innings in which he allowed four earned runs on three hits and three walks with a hit batsman.
“I pretty much beat myself,” he said.
It was a surprisingly ugly start for Bassitt, who had pitched to a 1.61 ERA over his previous four road starts. But Bassitt was also pitching on eight days’ rest after Showalter shuffled the rotation to allow deGrom to pitch the opener of this series. That switch meant deGrom would be available to pitch Wednesday’s regular-season finale if the game has meaning.
Dansby Swanson hit a solo homer in the first inning to place the Mets in an immediate hole. The blast was the third in as many games for Swanson, who also went deep against deGrom and Scherzer in the series.
Daniel Vogelbach’s homer leading off the second got the run back against Charlie Morton. Jeff McNeil homered leading off the third, and the Mets extended their lead to 3-1 on Vogelbach’s RBI single following consecutive hits from Alonso and Eduardo Escobar.
But Bassitt was knocked out in the third inning, when the Braves sent eight batters to the plate and scored three runs to take a 4-3 lead.
With two outs, Bassitt drilled Austin Riley to load the bases before walking Matt Olson to force in a run. Travis d’Arnaud followed with a two-run single that put the Braves ahead and ended Bassitt’s night. Trevor May retired Marcell Ozuna for the final out.
Olson homered against Seth Lugo leading off the bottom of the inning to widen the Mets’ deficit to 5-3. Olson’s homer was his third in as many games.
Mark Canha singled leading off the eighth against A.J. Minter, but Mark Vientos struck out and Tomas Nido grounded into an inning-ending double play. Kenley Jansen earned the save with a perfect ninth.
“It doesn’t feel good, but at the end of the day you have to focus on what you have in front of you,” Francisco Lindor said. “We wanted to come in here and win a couple of games, but it didn’t happen.”
