Mets Offense Shut Down by Chris Sale in Shutout Loss
After dropping the series opener to the Braves in extra innings on Tuesday night, the Mets were hoping to turn things around on Wednesday as the NL East rivals continued their series at Truist Park in Atlanta.
The Mets (45-29) had Paul Blackburn on the mound against reigning Cy Young award winner Chris Sale (4-4, 2.63 ERA) for Atlanta (33-39).
Instead of turning things around, the Mets suffered their fifth shutout of the season and fifth straight loss, dropping game two to the Braves 5-0, giving Atlanta the series win. The Braves took the lead, and they never looked back in a three-run first. It started with a lead-off home run by Ronald Acuña Jr. on the first pitch of the game. Blackburn then gave up a single and a walk before retiring the first batter of the inning. A fielding error on Luis Torrens for using his mask to stop a ball allowed the second run of the inning to cross, and Marcell Ozuna hit a sacrifice fly to make it a 3-0 Braves lead through one.
Blackburn gave up a lead-off triple to Ozzie Albies in the second, but he was able to work himself out of trouble to keep the Braves from adding on to their lead.
The Braves extended their lead in the fourth. With one out, Albies hit his second extra-base hit of the day, a double to right field to put a runner on for Atlanta. After Blackburn retired Michael Harris II, Carlos Mendoza went to his bullpen, bringing in José Buttó in relief of Blackburn. Butto walked Nick Allen on a wild pitch, which allowed Albies to score and make it a 4-0 Atlanta lead.
The Mets went back to their bullpen in the sixth, bringing in Jose Castillo in relief of Butto. He was followed by Ty Adcock in the seventh. Adcock gave up a solo home run to Matt Olson, which made it a 5-0 Braves lead.
Justin Garza came in in the eighth for New York and threw a scoreless frame, with all three outs being on ground balls to Jeff McNeil.
Offensively, the Mets could not get anything going. Starling Marte had two singles, Tyrone Taylor, McNeil, and Brandon Nimmo also singled on Wednesday, but that was all the Mets were able to do as they were shut out and out-hit 7-5.
ON DECK
The Mets and Braves close out their series on Thursday night at 7:15 PM. It will be righty pitcher Clay Holmes (7-3, 2.87 ERA) on the mound for New York as they look to avoid the sweep. They will be opposed by right-handed pitcher Spencer Strider (1-5, 4.35 ERA) for the Braves.
The post Mets Offense Shut Down by Chris Sale in Shutout Loss appeared first on Metsmerized Online.