Mets’ Series Win Streak Ends, Lose 9-2 to Braves

After sweeping Tuesday’s doubleheader, the Mets went into Wednesday’s matchup with the Braves looking to take their eighth consecutive series to begin 2022. Tylor Megill took the mound for the Mets in his first start since the combined no-hitter, while Ian Anderson made the start for Atlanta. Despite Megill having a strong start and Anderson looking shaky throughout the day, the Braves took advantage of the Mets’ bullpen to win the game 9-2 and earn a series split.

The Braves started Wednesday’s game with the most strikeouts in MLB, and Megill wasted no time adding to it. He struck out Ronald Acuna Jr. and Austin Riley in the first inning, sandwiching a terrific diving play by Francisco Lindor to rob Matt Olson of a hit. He added two more in strikeouts in the second inning when he struck out Ozzie Albies and Travis d’Arnaud.

After leaving two runners on base in the bottom of the first inning, it looked like Jeff McNeil was going to get the scoring started when he hit a deep fly ball into the right field corner, but Guillermo Heredia scaled the wall and made a leaping catch behind his head to rob McNeil of an extra base-hit off the top of the wall.

The Mets put themselves in position to score again in the third after Brandon Nimmo worked a walk and Starling Marte singled against the shift with one out. Lindor nearly put the Mets ahead, but his fly ball to right field was caught on the warning track by Heredia before Pete Alonso hit a hard ground out to end the inning.

Megill started the fourth inning by walking Olson, but he struck out Riley and Marcell Ozuna before getting Albies to ground into the shift. The hitless inning brought Megill up to nine consecutive hitless innings over his last two starts.

A Lindor error allowed d’Arnaud to reach to lead off the fifth inning before Adam Duvall lined the Braves first hit of the day into left field to put two runners on with nobody out for Atlanta. After Dansby Swanson flew out to the wall in right center to move d’Arnaud to third, Megill struck out Heredia and Acuna Jr. to get through the inning unscathed.

A lead off single from James McCann had Anderson on the ropes again to start the fifth inning, but he quickly got out of trouble with a double play ball from Nimmo and a line out from Marte.

Despite the Mets having runners on every inning, it was the Braves who struck first. Olson flew out to lead off the inning before Riley hit what appeared to be a groundout to Eduardo Escobar at third. After a review, Riley was called safe at first. Ozuna and Albies followed with singles to load the bases, and Buck Showalter turned to Adam Ottavino to get out of the jam. Ottavino was spectacular in his first two outings of the series, but his third outing in as many days proved to be too much for the right-hander.

Ottavino walked d’Arnaud to bring in the game’s first run, and followed by allowing a two-run double from Duvall before a wild pitch brought in a fourth Atlanta run. After Swanson singled in the fifth run of the inning, Ottavino was lifted for Trevor Williams.

Williams proceeded to walk Heredia before giving up an RBI single to Acuna Jr. Olson finally made an out after seven straight Braves reached base, but the Mets failed to nab Acuna Jr. in a run down as the Braves’ seventh run scored. Williams struck out Riley to put an end to the disastrous inning.

The Mets finally got their first run in the bottom of the sixth, but it was too little too late. Alonso and Escobar hit back-to-back one-out doubles to get the Mets on the board, but they were unable to cut into Atlanta’s lead anymore.

In the top of the eighth, Heredia put an exclamation point on his surprise start. Heredia was inserted into the lineup when Travis Demeritte was a late scratch. As if the highlight-reel catch on McNeil’s ball in the second inning wasn’t enough, he added a two-run home run to cap off a terrific day for the former Met.

After Williams pitched through the top of the ninth to preserve the rest of the Mets’ bullpen, Luis Guillorme came up in the bottom of the ninth and hit his first home run of the season off former Met Darren O’Day. The Mets could not get any closer, as they dropped the final game of the series.

Player of the Game: Tylor Megill

Megill’s final line did not do justice to how well he pitched. He finished by throwing 5 1/3 innings and allowing three runs on four hits and two walks while striking out nine. Before the bullpen implosion in the sixth inning, Megill had allowed just two hits through five innings while racking up strikeouts. The box score will not be as kind to Megill as it has been to this point in the season, but he turned in another excellent outing that could’ve looked much different with some support from the offense or the bullpen. Considering Megill was going to start the season in Triple-A before Jacob deGrom’s injury, the start he has gotten off to continues to be one of the biggest surprises in baseball.

On Deck

The Mets will make their second trip to Philadelphia when they begin a three game series with the Phillies on Thursday at 6:45 p.m. ET. Taijuan Walker will be making his third start of the year, with all three coming against the Phillies.  The game will be televised on SNY with pregame coverage starting at 6:00 p.m. ET.