3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Hit New Rock Bottom Against Braves

Things do not look good for the New York Mets.

Entering the Atlanta Braves series in Queens, the Mets were in free-fall mode. The slide looked to have been stopped thanks to an offensive explosion on Tuesday. Not to mention Pete Alonso making history.

However, Tuesday proved to be the exception rather than the recent rule.

Wednesday saw an all-time meltdown, before the Mets continued their never-ending slide by losing the finale, and the series, to Atlanta on Thursday.

As a result, New York has now lost three consecutive home series, and five straight series in total. That is tied for the longest such streak this season. Furthermore, the Mets are 2-13 over their last 15 games, which is the worst record in any 15-game span since May/June of 2018.

Not good.

And, on that note, let’s dive into another edition of 3 Up, 3 Down. It will be another largely negative one, but we’ll do our best to draw some positives if we can…

3 UP

NEW HOME RUN KING

Pete Alonso now stands alone in the annals of Mets history. The slugger launched a pair of home runs in the series opener on Tuesday to cement his place in forever. Alonso hit his 253rd career homer in the bottom of the third to officially surpass Darryl Strawberry for the most home runs in Mets franchise history. It took Alonso about a full season less to accomplish that significant milestone than Strawberry. Alonso also blasted home run No. 254 later on in the game to put an exclamation point on what was just a special night for everyone connected with the Mets. Alonso now stands alone as the best power hitter in the history of the franchise.

TURNING POINT

Francisco Lindor has been going through it as of late. The shortstop entered the series finale hitting just .158/.333/.211/.544 with one extra-base hit and six strikeouts over his last five games. A lot of his at-bats have also looked largely non-competitive recently. However, on Thursday, Lindor broke out offensively. He finished the night 3-for-4 with a home run, two singles, a stolen base and two runs scored. All in all, Lindor did all he could to help his team. Furthermore, Lindor’s 22nd home run of the year has him tied with Michael Conforto for eighth all-time on the Mets’ home run list. More importantly, though, the Mets will be hoping that Lindor can now build on his big night and go on an absolute tear the rest of the way.

SOLID RETURN

Paul Blackburn doesn’t have a concrete role with the team moving forward. However, he sure did help the Mets out on Wednesday night. Activated from the IL after six weeks out with a right shoulder impingement, Blackburn took on the role of a long man out of the bullpen. He gave his team five innings of relief, allowing two earned runs on one hit and one walk with three strikeouts. Not only did Blackburn somewhat stop the bleeding on just a bad night, he also saved the bullpen. A nice job all around.

3 DOWN

ALL-TIME CHOKE JOB

Wednesday night will go down as one of the worst losses of the year for the Mets. It could potentially be season-defining, too. Things started out so well. Coming off a big-time win the night before, the offense came out swinging and built an early 6-0 lead before the third inning. David Peterson also looked sharp on the mound. But, then, the wheels well and truly fell off. Peterson imploded, being shelled for six earned runs on five hits and five walks in just 3 1/3 innings. Reed Garrett then entered the game and allowed a grand slam, capping off an embarrassing nine-run fourth inning. In all, the Mets allowed 11 unanswered runs. The offense couldn’t get anything going from the third inning onwards, advancing just one runner into scoring position from the sixth onwards. Entering Thursday, the Mets had lost leads of four-plus runs in each of their last three games – the first time that has ever happened in franchise history.

FADING FAST

The Mets do not look like a playoff team right now, let alone a World Series contender, and this series against the Braves underlined that sobering reality. In the wake of losing a fifth consecutive series, New York has now blown nine leads in its last six games. The team is five games back of the Phillies for the NL East lead. The Mets are also just half a game ahead of the Cincinnati Reds for the final Wild Card spot in the National League. Furthermore, they are just seven games over .500 – the lowest watermark since April 19. All in all, the Mets are finding new ways to lose every single night and, if this continues, the season may well get away from them quickly.

STARTING CONCERN

This team has a slew of problems right now. Chief among them is the continued failures of the starting rotation. Aside from Kodai Senga on Thursday, the starting pitching was not good in this series. Clay Holmes allowed five runs on six hits and five walks in his outing on Tuesday. David Peterson was also blown up in his start on Wednesday. But it is the lack of length that is really getting out of hand. Holmes pitched just 3 2/3 innings. Peterson lasted just 3 1/3 innings. And, as a result of Peterson’s early exit, the Mets officially went a full turn through the rotation without a single starter completing five innings. Senga did buck that trend on Thursday. However, the point remains that this team is getting killed by its rotation right now. Prior to Thursday, the Mets were getting fewer than five innings per game from their starters over 120 games. Plus, since June 13, and also prior to Thursday, Mets starters had put together just 227 innings – that’s the lowest total in all of baseball. That’s just not good enough, and it isn’t sustainable, either. Unless things change with this rotation, and fast, the Mets are doomed.

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