Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

In their first Friday home game of the year, the Mets (15-12) donned their black jerseys for the first time in 2023 as they began a four-game set with the Braves (18-9) on Friday night in the rain. David Peterson took the mound for New York looking to bounce back from two straight rough starts, while Max Fried, who came into the game having given up just one earned run in 15 innings, was on the mound for Atlanta.

Due to the rain, the game couldn’t go nine innings as it became too much to play through. Once the game became official, it went into a delay and didn’t start back up. The final result was a 4-0 Mets loss as Peterson ultimately couldn’t shut down the Braves’ potent offense and the Mets’ bats failed to get anything going against Fried.

Peterson’s night got off to a fantastic start as he needed just 11 pitches to set down the dangerous trio of Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson, and Austin Riley which included strikeouts of Olson and Riley. Fried, like Peterson, put up a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the first.

After drawing a four-pitch walk in the bottom of the second inning, Jeff McNeil stole his second base of the year to put himself in scoring position. He would not come around to score, however, as Mark Canha flew out and Tommy Pham struck out to end the inning.

Peterson kept cruising through the third inning as he only needed nine pitches to complete a 1-2-3 inning that included a strikeout of Acuña. Through three innings, Peterson had given up just one hit on 36 pitches, a pleasant sight after he was ambushed in San Francisco last Saturday for six runs through the first two innings.

Brett Baty‘s impressive play of late drew him the start against the lefty Fried, his first start against a lefty this season, and he rewarded that decision by leading off the bottom of the third with a base hit up the middle. He was subsequently erased on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Francisco Álvarez, who reached first base. Fried attacked Brandon Nimmo with fastballs in the next at-bat to strike him out and got Starling Marte to ground out to get through the inning.

Pitching to the heart of the Braves lineup in the fourth, Peterson retired Matt Olson with the help of spectacular defense by Francisco Lindor. Lindor made a running play to his right for a ground ball and threw the ball to first to get the out with his momentum carrying him the other way. Peterson then walked Riley but kept his composure to strike out Ozzie Albies and induce a ground ball off the bat of Sean Murphy to escape the inning.

The Mets got a baserunner on against Fried for the third straight inning in the fourth after Pete Alonso reached base with a one-out infield single. Like Baty the previous inning, Alonso was erased the next at-bat after a fielder’s choice off the bat of McNeil. Canha also grounded out to end the inning and keep the game scoreless through four.

Peterson got into his first real trouble of the night in the fifth inning as Eddie Rosario singled and Kevin Pillar doubled to put two runners in scoring position with one out. That brought up Michael Harris II, batting ninth in his first game back from the injured list. After falling behind in the count 0-2, Harris worked the count full and grounded the ball to Baty at third. Rosario, the runner at third, broke for home and was thrown out for the second out of the inning.

The inning was far from over, though, as Acuña attacked Peterson and smoked the first pitch of his at-bat to right field to drive in Pillar and make it 1-0. Matt Olson, who haunted the Mets late last season with home runs, then made Peterson pay with a three-run bomb and just like that the Braves took a 4-0 lead. Finally, Peterson struck out Riley for the second time in the game to end the inning.

The Mets attempt at a response in the bottom of the fifth fell short. Outside of a single by the young Álvarez, Fried got through the inning easily and kept the Braves’ four-run lead intact. With the rain falling heavily and the game now official, the game went into a delay and was subsequently called as a 4-0 Braves win.

Despite pitching well for four innings, Peterson couldn’t get through the fifth inning cleanly and took the loss for his second straight start to fall to 1-4, while Fried threw his third straight scoreless start to improve to 2-0.

On Deck

The Mets will continue their series with the Braves on Saturday at 4:05 p.m. ET, with the game being broadcast on FOX. Tylor Megill (3-1, 3.96 ERA) will look to rebound from a loss in his last start in San Francisco, while Spencer Strider (3-0, 1.80 ERA) will look to build upon his last two outings in which he has thrown 14 scoreless innings.