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With Jacob deGrom coming off his worst start in years, the Mets were looking for a big performance from their ace as the team began an enormous three-game series with the Atlanta Braves.

The results they got were…mixed, leading to a series-opening loss.

While deGrom performed better than in his shocking collapse against Oakland, it still wasn’t quite the elite showing they were hoping for. The good news is he struck out 11 and didn’t walk anyone. The bad news is he gave up three home runs and was lifted due to an apparent issue with a blister. It was the second straight underwhelming start for deGrom, who had been so dominant upon his return from injury.

Mechanically, he said he feels fine — it just comes down to the execution of pitches.

“I feel good. That’s the most frustrating part about it,” deGrom said. “Everything feels good; it’s just when I do make a mistake over the middle of the plate, it’s getting hit hard. So I gotta eliminate those.”

His outing started on a positive note, shutting the Braves down one-two-three in the first inning with strikeouts of Dansby Swanson and Michael Harris. He completed both punchouts with his 93 mph slider.

The tides quickly turned in the second, as the Braves did what they do best — hit home runs. DeGrom threw another 93 mph slider on a 1-0 count, but he left this one over the plate, and it got crushed over the center field wall by Austin Riley. He then fell behind Matt Olson 3-1 and left a 99 mph fastball over the heart of the plate, and that one was also crushed to center field.

DeGrom settled in with a scoreless third, fourth and fifth innings, at one point striking out five in a row. He averaged 98.7 mph with his fastball and topped out at 100.8. Despite not being entirely on top of his game, the strikeouts continued to come in droves for the talented right-hander. On the season, he’s now accumulated 102 strikeouts in just 64 1/3 innings.

After starting the sixth inning with a strikeout of Ronald Acuna Jr., he gave up yet another home run to Swanson. It made deGrom’s line uneven for the night, in a performance that would have been considered dominant if you took a homer or two off the board.

“The goal is to go out there and put up zeroes, and I guess I wasn’t able to do it,” deGrom said. “That’s on me.”

At 86 pitches, deGrom’s evening came to an end. After the game, Buck Showalter clarified that deGrom came out because he had a blister. DeGrom said he was dealing with it in his last start as well, and then it popped and became more irritating as the night went on.

“It started getting pretty aggravated,” deGrom said. “We were debating on whether or not to keep going with it. We decided that that was enough, don’t want it to become a bigger issue than what it is.”

DeGrom’s season ERA is up to 3.08, a number that’s been buoyed by the home run ball. Virtually all of deGrom’s stats are elite, with his home run rate a notable exception. His HR/9 is at 1.26, which would be the worst of his career — the second-worst a 1.25 mark in 2017. For his career, he’s given up 0.79 home runs per nine innings.

DeGrom likely has one more start left in the regular season before he opens a playoff series. Whether that’ll be an NLDS or Wild Card series is still up in the air, with the Mets and Braves now tied for first with five games left. DeGrom will need to improve from his last two shaky outings to give the Mets confidence that he’ll perform like an ace in the postseason.

The Mets’ co-ace, Max Scherzer, will take the hill Saturday against the Braves, looking to fare a little better.