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Coming off their fourth consecutive loss, things went from bad to worse for the Mets on Wednesday night against the Atlanta Braves. In his first at-bat of the night, Pete Alonso took a 97 mph fastball to the left wrist that forced him out of the game just four batters in. Desperately needing to turn things around, the Mets would have to take on their division rival without their top hitter.

With the Mets’ biggest bat out of the game, the baby Mets stepped up early in the game. Brett Baty drove in the game’s first run in the top of the first with a broken-bat bloop single that was just out of the reach of Orlando Arcia in shallow center field.

In the second, Francisco Álvarez came to the plate with two outs and nobody and base, and he doubled the Mets’ lead to 2-0 with a 421 foot homer over the visitor’s bullpen in left field. The homer was Álvarez’s ninth of the year, and his first since homering in back-to-back games in Colorado.

While the Mets’ two rookies were providing the offense, Max Scherzer was dominant over the first three innings. He struck out seven batters and allowed just two infield singles over the first 11 batters he faced.

The Braves got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with some incredibly good fortune. After a leadoff single by Austin Riley, the Braves strung together three consecutive two-out infield singles to get their first run of the night. Scherzer avoided any further damage by striking out Michael Harris II to strand the bases loaded and hold onto the Mets’ one run lead.

With their lead cut in half, the Mets responded with two runs of their own in the top of the fifth. Francisco Lindor hit a ground-rule double with two outs before Tommy Pham, who entered the game after Alonso’s injury, hit a two-run home run to give the Mets a 4-1 lead. The homer was Pham’s sixth of the season and his first against a right-handed pitcher.

After Scherzer retired the first two batters of the bottom of the fifth, the Braves did what they do as well as anyone in baseball. Riley hit his second single of the game, and Sean Murphy followed with a two-run home run to cut the Mets’ lead to 4-3.

The sixth inning burned the Mets for the second straight night, as the Braves once again rallied to take the lead. Scherzer retired the first two batters of the frame, but allowed back-to-back doubles to the eight and nine hitters to bring in the tying run. With the lead gone and Ronald Acuña Jr. up, Scherzer allowed a go-ahead single to give the Braves their first lead of the night. Dominic Leone came into the game to finish the inning.

Scherzer finished his night going 5 2/3 innings allowing 11 hits, five runs and no walks while striking out 10 hitters. He passed Roger Clemens for the third most double-digit strikeout games in MLB history, with just Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan having more than Scherzer’s 111. Five of the Braves; first six hits were infield hits over the first four innings, but Atlanta was able to do damage against the future Hall-Of-Famer in the fifth and sixth innings.

“Tonight was kind of a weird night,” Scherzer said following his outing. “You win and lose ballgames on your last 15 pitches. That is typically where the game is won and lost. You want to execute better in those situations.”

It was the Mets turn to rally from behind in the top of the seventh, but a terrific catch by Acuña Jr. prevented the Mets from having a big inning of their own. Pham came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out and hit a fly ball to the wall in right-center field. Acuña Jr. got to the wall and made a leaping catch to rob Pham of a go-ahead extra-base hit. The Mets settled for a game-tying sacrifice fly, but the inning could have produced much more if not for Acuña’s Jr.’s catch.

After Harris made an incredible leaping catch to rob Mark Canha of an extra-base hit to end the top of the eighth, he played hero in the bottom of the inning. With two outs and the go-ahead run on third base, Harris slugged his third home run of the season off Adam Ottavino to give the Braves a 7-5 lead. It was the fourth home run Ottavino has allowed this season after giving up just six home runs in 2022.

A.J. Minter came in for the Braves in the ninth and retired the side in order to give the Mets their fifth-straight loss. The loss dropped the Mets to 30-32 and 7.5 games back in the National League East. After the game, Showalter tried to put a positive spin on yet another night where the Mets could not hold onto a lead.

The only positive for the Mets on Wednesday night was Alonso’s X-rays being negative. Buck Showalter said after the game that Alonso will undergo a CT scan on Thursday, but would not commit to the first baseman being back in the lineup for Thursday’s game.

Player of the Game: Tommy Pham

Pham was hitting just .192 against right-handed pitching in 2023 entering the night, but the injury to Alonso forced him into the game. He capitalized by going 1-2 with a two-run homer and a long sac-fly to finish with three RBIs. Pham has now hit .375/.450/1.125 with three home runs over his last seven games.

On Deck

The Mets and Braves will play the finale of their three-game series on Thursday night at 7:20 p.m. ET at Truist Park. Justin Verlander (2-3, 4.25 ERA) will make the start for the Mets coming off a strong six-inning outing against the Blue Jays that saw him throw 117 pitches. Spencer Strider (6-2, 2.97 ERA) will start for the Braves.

The game will be broadcast on SNY, and the radio call will be on WCBS 880.