ATLANTA – It was an obliteration in nearly all facets, and it not only brought the race closer, it made the Mets look abysmal.
Returning to Turner Field for a key series against the Braves last night, the Mets were the furthest thing from impressive. Other than not committing an error, the Mets didn’t deliver in any area – offensively they were stifled, and both their starting and relief pitchers were hammered.
The Mets were blasted 8-1 in the opener of their three-game set, falling behind 5-0 by the fourth inning. Their NL East lead was trimmed to 1 ½ games. If the Mets lose tonight and tomorrow, they’ll leave Turner Field in second place.
That would be unlikely but still plausible, especially since Atlanta has gone 5-2 versus the Mets this season.
“It was one game,” David Wright said. “This is the first of three. They get the first one. So we’ve got to rebound.”
Braves starter Kyle Davies tamed the Mets on the mound and took them deep at the plate. Davies, who came in with a 5.17 ERA, held the Mets to just the one run on six hits in eight innings and even blasted a three-run homer in the sixth.
Davies allowed some line-drive outs and got the benefit of a potentially big call – and unquestionably blown call – by second base ump Mark Carlson. But the Mets mustered only a few threats, and they didn’t collect an extra-base hit off Davies until a two-out Carlos Beltran double in the eighth.
“He kept us off-balance,” Paul Lo Duca said.
Jorge Sosa, who faced the Braves for the first time since Atlanta dealt him to St. Louis last July, was 3-0 for the Mets going into last night.
He didn’t get to 4-0. He didn’t even get to the fifth inning.
Sosa gave up five runs in four innings, suffering a problems with the first batter in multiple innings.
“I feel down on myself because I let the team down, especially having Atlanta behind us,” Sosa said. “I didn’t do my job tonight.”
Neither did Aaron Sele, who relieved Sosa. Sele surrendered Davies’ three-run shot to center, his second career homer, which prompted fireworks at Turner.
Sosa was dynamic in the first inning, retiring all three Braves and striking out two. But the righty allowed leadoff doubles in the second to Brian McCann and Jeff Francoeur for Atlanta’s first run. Andruw Jones, who came in batting .147 in May, hit an RBI single, making it 2-0.
In the third, Sosa again had problems with the leadoff man, who happened to be Davies.
Sosa walked Davies, and Kelly Johnson doubled. A Chipper Jones sac fly and a McCann RBI single made it 4-0. In the fourth, Scott Thorman’s leadoff homer pushed the lead to 5-0.
The Mets’ only shot in the first four innings came in the first, when they had runners on first and third with one out. But Carlos Delgado’s struggles continued, as he grounded into an inning-ending double play.
In the fifth, the Mets were victimized partially by poor clutch hitting but also by Carlson’s blown call. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Damion Easley hit a grounder to short. But after Johnson dropped Edgar Renteria’s throw to second, Carlson called an out on the force, robbing the Mets of a situation of bases loaded and nobody out. They ended up with only one run in the inning.