Credit: Andy Marlin, USA TODAY
It was Camp Day for the Mets as they finished up their five-game set with the division rival Atlanta Braves on Thursday at Citi Field, hoping to bury the Braves six games behind them with the trade deadline coming up on Friday. To do so, they sent Taijuan Walker to the mound to start in the hopes that he’d rebound from his difficult start to the 2nd half.
He breezed through the first three innings, especially after Dom Smith‘s RBI single to drive in Brandon Nimmo in the third inning to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. But that lead would not last as Walker would get rocked with back to back home runs – first by proverbial thorn Austin Riley, then by Abraham Almonte to give the Braves a 3-1 lead.
The Braves would tack on two more in the fifth before Pete Alonso responded with an upper deck home run to make it 5-3. However, a mistake pitch by Jeurys Familia was sent right into the bullpens by Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson to all but seal it as the Braves would extend their lead to 6-3 and their bullpen would hold the Mets in check, despite Taijuan Walker striking out seven and walking two through five innings of work and 87 pitches (61 strikes).
On the loss, Pete Alonso said “It’s unfortunate how this series panned out, but every day is a new opportunity and I think it’s gonna be a great series ahead of us against the Reds.”
Taijuan Walker added in “For me, it’s two things. One, the long ball has been killing me and two, it’s just the pitch selection. It’s just not trusting myself and you throw a pitch without conviction.”
Walker’s ERA at the All-Star break was a sparkling 2.50, it’s now up to 3.71 on the season. Walker is also up to 99 1/3 innings for the season, the highest mark since he threw 157 innings for Arizona back in 2017.
He went on to say “I didn’t do my job today, we scored some runs, but I didn’t do my job in helping the team to win.”
Mets will be back at it Friday night as they start up a weekend series against the Reds in not only the return of the iconic black jerseys, but also the debut of Carlos Carrasco.
