The New York Mets (73-84) were defeated by the Atlanta Braves (89-68) tonight in their first game of this three-game series at the score of 7-3.

Pitching

Noah Syndergaard (12-4, 3.36 ERA) bounced back tonight from his shaky start against the Phillies and pitched six quality shutout innings. He struck out five batters, but Syndergaard did have to work through some early inning trouble. The result was positive only giving up three hits and walking two batters. Unfortunately, the bullpen couldn’t secure the win for Thor which gives him a no-decision.

Robert Gsellman pitched the seventh inning after Noah was pulled. The right-hander struggled in his relief appearance giving up a double to Johan Camargo, then the next batter Kurt Suzuki served up a base hit to score Camargo which scored the first Braves run of the game. Gsellman was responsible for the runners at first, second and third when he was pulled with one out.

Drew Smith came on in relief for Gsellman in a bases-loaded jam situation. The first pitch he threw was a wild pitch in the dirt that got past Nido and scored the second Braves run. The next batter, Ronald Acuna singled into left field off of Smith to score two more runs for the Braves to make it a 4-3. Then there were runners at second and third with one out, but Smith struck out the next two batters to escape the inning. All of the runs the righty gave up were unearned.

Jerry Blevins started the bottom of the eightth inning and this wasn’t a successful outing for him. He gave up two earned runs on two hits, including a two-run laser that was launched into the left-field seats by Ozzie Albies batting right-handed.

Tyler Bashlor had a scoreless outing coming in for Blevins in the eighth inning. He only gave up one hit and a hit by pitch.

Jacob Rhame pitched a scoreless ninth inning.

Offense

In the third, Jeff McNeil hit a single right up the middle, followed by an RBI double from Michael Conforto which brought McNeil around to score. The next batter, Jay Bruce kept the offense rolling and brought Conforto into score with another RBI single to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.

Brandon Nimmo got the bottom of the sixth started with an lead-off walk, Austin Jackson singled and gave the Mets runners at first and third. Tomas Nido sacrificed fly to center which brought in Nimmo to score the third run of the game.

The Mets offense was lacking in runners in scoring position tonight going only 1-for-4 while leaving ten runners on base.

On Deck

The New York Mets will look to win the second game of the series tomorrow with Jacob deGrom on the mound. This will be deGrom’s final start of the season as he will try to solidify his Cy Young credentials against the Atlanta Braves. Game time will be at 7:10 p.m.