Braves Get to Walker, Beat Mets 6-3 toTake Rubber Game

For three innings, it looked like Taijuan Walker may have regained the form that earned him his first All-Star nod earlier this month.

But he was touched up for five runs over the next two innings and the Mets were unable to come back, dropping the rubber game of this five-game series, 6-3, to the Braves on Thursday afternoon at Citi Field.

The loss moved Walker’s ERA to 3.71 on the year, and 5.54 over his last 10 starts, as he seems to maybe be suffering from some fatigue following last year’s shortened season.

Walker cruised through the first two innings, making use of his rarely-used curve ball and striking out three of the first six batters he faced.

 

Nimmo did what he does in the first, falling behind 0-2 before turning a nine-pitch at bat into a walk against Brave starter Drew Smyly. Pete Alonso struck out swinging ahead of Dom Smith, who singled to give J.D. Davis runners at the corners with one out.

Davis, and eventually McCann both went down swinging on curveballs outside of the zone. The silver lining was that it took 31 pitches for Smyly to get through the opening inning, but the Mets plate discipline certainly left something to be desired.

Michael Conforto and Jonathan Villar both went down looking to start the second, giving Smyly four-straight strikeouts ahead of Brandon Drury, who made it 7-for-7 since being called back up with a line drive single to left. Walker’s half-hearted bunt attempt didn’t pan out though, ending the frame.

Stephen Vogt walked to lead off the third, but Walker retired the next three batters, including Joc Pederson swinging on a high fastball. Nimmo led off the bottom half of the inning with a tailing liner to left that went off Abraham Almonte’s glove for a double.

Alonso’s dribbler back to the pitcher moved Nimmo to third with one out for the second time in the first three innings. This time, the Mets were able to bring him around as Smith smoked a ball off the top of the fence in right. The only problem was that he hit the ball too hard, as Pederson was able to field the carom and cut down Smith at second base. Davis grounded out to end the third with the Mets up 1-0.

After a leadoff walk to Albies – Walker’s second-straight inning issuing a free pass to begin a frame – Freeman flew out and Austin Riley hit his 200th homer of the series (actual number: four) to put the Braves up 2-1. After Dansby Swanson grounded out, Almonte made it 3-1 with a towering homer to right. Walker hadn’t allowed a hit before Riley’s bomb.

The Mets comeback bid in the fourth started with a McCann bloop single, but he was erased on Conforto’s broken-bat, 6-6-3 double play. Villar singled ahead of Drury, who made it 8-for-8 with a one-hopper past Swanson at short. Walker again awkwardly tried to bunt though, eventually fouling out to strand two.

Guillermo Heredia started the fifth with a single to center, but Smyly was unable to advance him – fouling out attempting to bunt ahead of the top of the Brave lineup. Pederson worked a nine-pitch at-bat and eventually grounded one through the shift on the right side to put runners on the corners with one out for the most dangerous part of the Atlanta lineup.

Albies hit a mile-high pop-up that Nimmo just couldn’t quite reach to bring in the Braves fourth run of the game. Walker caught Freeman looking with his best slider of the day, but Riley drove in his 10th run of the series with a soft liner to left.

Down four runs in the bottom of the fifth, Nimmo lined a single the other way to reach base for the third time. It took Alonso just one pitch to cut the lead in half, as he got a hanging slider and hit one of the longest homers in Citi Field history into the upper deck in left field.

That prodigious blast chased Smyly, who was replaced by Jesse Chavez. The well-traveled righty retired Smith, Davis and McCann in order to keep the score at 5-3 after five.

Miguel Castro kept the score right there after the top of the sixth. He gave up a two-out walk to Heredia, but struck out pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval – his second K of the inning – to end the frame.

Lefty Tyler Matzek made his second appearance of the series for the Braves in the bottom half of the inning. He fed Conforto a diet of fastballs to get him swinging before Villar got the tying run to the plate with a bloop single to right. That’s where Drury’s streak would come to an end though, as his broken bat grounder towards the middle resulted in an easy inning-ending double play.

Aaron Loup bounced back from his rare rough outing on Wednesday to retire the top of the Braves order on just eight pitches in the seventh. Matzek meanwhile stayed in for the Braves and made pinch-hitter Kevin Pillar look foolish on a three-pitch strikeout. It took him just one pitch to retire Nimmo for the first time today – via a groundout to third. Alonso’s ground out to first gave Matzek his sixth out on just 12 pitches.

Jeurys Familia entered for the Mets in the eighth and struck out Riley in short order. Swanson gave the Braves an insurance run though, jumping on a first pitch sinker that stayed straight and depositing it over the fence in right center. Familia rebounded to retire his final two batters, but the Braves took a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the eighth.

Luke Jackson looked to make that score stand up in the eighth and retired Smith quickly on a hard-hit grounder into the shift. Davis followed that up with his third strikeout of the day, each looking feebler than the last. McCann singled, but Conforto’s flyout to left center left him on first.

Akeem Bostick entered for the Mets in the ninth, making his first career appearance and tying a franchise record as the 56th player to appear for the team this season. He retired the first two batters to face him on fly outs to center before walking Pederson to bring up Albies. It took just one pitch for Bostick to retire Albies though, forcing a pop up that Davis was able to track down in shallow left.

Braves closer Will Smith came on to face the bottom third of the Mets order. Villar greeted him with his third hit of a game, a laced double to the fence in left. Drury hit one hard to right, but Pederson tracked it down for the first out. Nido similarly drove one to right, but again Pederson was equal to the task. Nimmo struck out to end the game and leave Alonso as the tying run on deck.

The Mets start a weekend series with the Reds, led by the scorching-hot Joey Votto, on Friday. Carlos Carrasco will make his first start as a Met, who will don their alternate black jerseys for the first time since 2012. He’ll be opposed by Sonny Gray (2-6, 4.50 ERA). The action can be caught on SNY and WCBS Radio 880 at 7:10 p.m.