Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Coming off six strong shutout innings against the Cardinals in St. Louis, veteran righty Chris Bassitt turned in another strong outing, this time against the defending champion Atlanta Braves. Bassitt threw seven innings, allowing six hits and one walk, and striking out eight batters in a formidable Braves lineup. It was Bassitt’s first start since bringing up the “bad” baseballs MLB has been providing to pitchers.

Despite walking only one batter, Bassitt clearly battled through the last half of his start, as he was visibly frustrated on multiple occasions with home plate umpire Chad Fairchild’s tight strike zone. It appeared that Bassitt was particularly annoyed with how Fairchild called pitches at the bottom of the strike zone.

In fact, during the fifth inning, Bassitt was almost halfway to the dugout after he thought he caught Dansby Swanson looking at a pitch to end the inning. Fairchild did not see it that way, and Bassitt ended up walking Swanson and hitting Ronald Acuña, Jr., with a pitch. (Fairchild seemed to admit his missed the call after the inning as Bassitt walked to the dugout.) He then was able to get former teammate Matt Olson to pop out weakly on the infield to end the threat. (“He’ll get me eventually,” Bassitt joked after the game.)

Bassitt surrendered two runs in the sixth inning, but he appeared pretty unlucky in so doing. Austin Riley led off the inning with an infield single, and after a fielder’s choice, Ozzie Albies and Travis d’Arnaud followed with weak hits that came on balls with exit velocities of 72.7 and 62.5, respectively. D’Arnaud’s hit–a double–brought in the tying run. Adam Duvall then gave the Braves the lead with a sacrifice fly that was not hit all that deep.

Bassitt finished his outing strong with a clean seventh inning that included a punchout.

After the game, Bassitt said he apologized to Fairchild for “showing him up.”

“I ain’t going to be mad at no umpire, I’ll tell you that,” said Bassitt.

In all, Bassitt threw 95 pitches on the night. Bassitt mixed his pitches heavily, which Mets fans have become accustomed to over his brief tenure with the Mets. Among those 95 pitches, Bassitt threw 38 sinkers, 20 sliders, 19 four-seam fastballs, 9 curveballs, 8 cutters and a single changeup. Bassitt’s velocity on all of his pitches was down a bit from where it has been early this season, but not alarmingly so.

Even on a night where he was battling a formidable lineup and an inconsistent umpire, Bassitt produced seven quality innings for the Mets, and showed why he has quickly become one of the most dependable arms on the team.