In the opener of their three-game series with the Braves and the start of a six-game road trip on Tuesday night, the Mets dropped their second-consecutive game for the first time since July 19, by a score of 5-3. Zack Wheeler took the mound for New York and was unable to find his groove in an unfortunate dissipation.
Coming into the night, the 29-year-old had been on a post-All-Star break hot streak with a 1.33 ERA through 20 1/3 innings pitched since July 26.
In Tuesday night’s loss, Wheeler surrendered all five runs earned by Atlanta and gave up a career-high twelve hits in just five innings. He walked two and struck out two.
The right-hander allowed two runs on four hits in the first inning alone. In the next frame, he let up a double to Braves’ starting pitcher Max Fried, followed by a Freddie Freeman RBI single to tack on a third run for Atlanta.
With one out in the fourth, Ronald Acuna Jr. homered to left-center field on a 97 mph fastball for Wheeler’s 18th homer allowed of the year- a career-high.
In the fifth, catcher Brian McCann singled on a ground ball to right field and advanced to second on a wild pitch from the Mets’ struggling starter. An Ender Inciarte double drove in Atlanta’s fifth and final run of the game.
Unfortunately, Wheeler has performed poorly against Atlanta all season. The right-hander has a 5.82 ERA when facing the Braves in 2019, allowing his opponents to hit .368/.417/.500.
“I missed spots and they made me pay for it. It stinks. We were on this run and I just didn’t give us a chance to win. This one’s on me,” Wheeler said, per Deesha Thosar of the New York Post.
Wheeler took the loss, with a 9-7 record on the season. His ERA was raised to 4.36 and his WHIP went up to 1.275. He now has a 2.5 bWAR in 144 1/3 innings pitched in 2019.
Steven Matz will take the mound on Wednesday night for New York in the second game of the series with the Braves, hoping to give the Mets a shot to win this three-game series against their division-leading rivals in Atlanta.
