Mets get throttled by Braves in 21-run disaster loss

May 2024 · 4 minute read

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The Mets fielded a makeshift lineup Saturday afternoon that barely would have met requirements for a road game in spring training, much less an August clash against the team with the best record in baseball.

Results aren’t always predictable in an unpredictable sport, but this purported mismatch stayed fully on script as the Mets were outclassed for the second straight game by the Braves in a humiliating 21-3 loss in the opener of a day-night doubleheader at Citi Field.

The Mets lost 6-0 in the nightcap.

“It obviously got away from us,” manager Buck Showalter said after the Mets lost by at least 18 runs at home for the first time in franchise history. “Fortunately, we got a game to take away that feeling here before too long,”

Former Mets farmhand Allan Winans, their 2018 17th-round draft pick, who was left unprotected and was then selected by the Braves in the 2021 Rule 5 draft, throttled a trade-depleted lineup that also was without injured starters Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo.

Winans allowed no runs on four hits over seven innings in his second big league start, but the Mets avoided a second consecutive shutout on Daniel Vogelbach’s three-run homer in the eighth inning.

Buck Showalter of the New York Mets pulls Denyi Reyes from the game during the fifth inning. Jason Szenes/New York Post

“Just not doing much offensively. … It’s been a real challenge for us,” said Showalter, whose plummeting club has lost nine of 11 since dealing away key players at the Aug. 1 trade deadline. “We get some people out there [on the bases], we just can’t make it work for us.”

The MLB-leading Braves (74-41) followed up their 7-0 pounding of the Mets on Friday night by scoring five runs on eight hits against fill-in starter Denyi Reyes during his 4 ²/₃ innings of work. Relievers Reed Garrett and Josh Walker and position player Danny Mendick were rocked for 16 additional runs — eight in the ninth inning against Mendick — and six home runs over the final four innings, including two by MLB leader Matt Olson.

MLB strikeout leader Spencer Strider was slated to oppose Mets lefty Jose Quintana in the nightcap.

The 26-year-old Reyes, who was signed as a free agent last winter, opened the season in the Mets’ bullpen, posting five scoreless relief appearances in April. His lone start for the Mets, on May 1 against the Braves, didn’t go as well.

Ronald Acuna and Matt Olson celebrate a three-run blast. Jason Szenes/New York Post

The righty was knocked out of that game before he recorded an out in the second inning and allowed five earned runs and two home runs in a 9-8 Mets loss.

This time, Reyes survived a rocky opening inning, with only one run crossing the plate. Marcell Ozuna lined into an inning-ending double play to fill-in shortstop Jonathan Aruaz.

Ronald Acuña Jr. had opened the game with an infield single before stealing his MLB-leading 54th base and scoring on a single to right by Austin Riley.

The Mets loaded the bases against Winans in the bottom half of the first, but he struck out Abraham Almonte for the final out of the inning.

Reed Garrett looks downcast after allowing a seventh-inning homer Jason Szenes/New York Post

Doubles by Eddie Rosario and Nicky Lopez against Reyes in the second inning boosted the Braves advantage to 2-0.

The Mets didn’t register a hit against Winans until Vogelbach’s single to left with one out in the fourth inning. By then, they trailed 5-0, after Lopez had another RBI hit in the top half of the fourth and Ozzie Albies drove in two more with a single to right later in the inning.

Olson clubbed his MLB-leading 41st and 42nd home runs of the season in the sixth and eighth innings, respectively. Albies also homered in the seventh to push the Mets’ deficit into double digits. Sean Murphy also homered in the eighth, prompting Showalter to bring in Mendick, who yielded two more home runs, to Riley and Lopez, in the ninth.

“That’s what you run into. Mendick’s done that job before, but you can’t ask people to make outs,” Showalter said. “It counts, so I understand.

“This is what guys do for a living; they hit for a living. And we inflicted that on ourselves. … It’s not their fault that we didn’t play very well, or pitch very well.”

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