Braves drop opener to Mets, 6-4

The Atlanta Braves dug themselves an early hole and were unable to recover in a 6-4 loss to the New York Mets.

The Mets struck quickly against Kyle Wright as Starling Marte reached on an infield single and then moved to second on a walk by Francisco Lindor. Pete Alonso jumped on a hanging breaking ball and drove a single to left that scored Marte to put them in front 1-0. With runners at the corners, Wright got the ground ball that he needed as Daniel Vogelbach hit into a 4-6-3 twin killing to end the inning.

New York added another run in the second as Tyler Naquin drove a pitch from Wright into the right field bullpen to make it 2-0.

Wright’s struggles continued in the third. After retiring the first two hitters to start the inning, he walked Lindor again to bring up Alonso who got another hanging breaking ball and lined it over the wall in left for a two-run shot to make it 4-0. Vogelbach followed with a solo shot to right to make it 5-0.

Atlanta’s offense struggled to get on track against Carlos Carrasco who faced two over the minimum over the first four innings. Marcell Ozuna led off the third with a single, but was left stranded. Austin Riley worked a two-out walk in the fourth, but Eddie Rosario flew out to end the inning.

The Braves finally broke through in the fifth as Travis d’Arnaud led off the inning with a single to left and then advanced to third on a wild pitch and a fly out to right by Ozuna. Michael Harris brought him home with a single to right to make it 5-1. Ronald Acuña Jr. then jumped on a 1-2 slider from Carrasco and drove it out to straight away center for his first home run in almost a month to cut the deficit to 5-3.

Wright got another double play to end the fourth and then retired the side in order in the fifth. He retired the first two hitters in the sixth but ran the count to 3-2 against Naquin who went down and got a breaking ball and golfed it out to left for another homer to make it 6-3.

Wright was able to escape the sixth with no further damage. He allowed seven hits, six runs and two walks to go along with four strikeouts. The four home runs were a career-high.

The Braves got that run back in the seventh against Adam Ottavino. Orlando Arcia singled with two outs to get things started. Arcia moved up to second on a wild pitch and then came around to score on a single by Harris to make it 6-4. Harris stole second, but Acuña struck out to leave him stranded.

Buck Showalter turned to closer Edwin Diaz for the eighth who got Dansby Swanson to ground out before striking out Matt Olson and Austin Riley. Diaz returned for the ninth and allowed a leadoff single by Rosario. d’Arnaud flew out for the first out and Diaz struck out Ozuna with a high fastball. Arcia then worked the count to 3-0, but was retired on a check swing grounder to end the game.

Atlanta falls to 63-43 on the season and are now 4.5 games behind in the NL East standings. The series will continue on Friday with Ian Anderson matching up against Taijuan Walker.