Braves go away quietly in 5-2 loss to Mets

Jacob deGrom turned in a dominant performance while Spencer Strider couldn’t make it out of the third inning for the Atlanta Braves in a 5-2 loss to the New York Mets.

After deGrom retired the Braves in order in the first, the Mets made Strider work in the home half of the inning. Brandon Nimmo singled and chaos ensued as Starling Marte grounded to Ehire Adrianza at second. Adrianza fielded and then tried to tag Nimmo and throw on to first. Marte beat the play at first, but Matt Olson threw down to Dansby Swanson who tagged Nimmo again.

That was important because a very long replay review showed that Adrianza tagged Nimmo with his glove while the ball was in his hand. However, since the Braves tagged out Nimmo before he advanced to second, he was still ruled out on the play. Buck Showalter then came out and argued which combined with the replay, forced Strider to sit around and wait for a long period of time. Francisco Lindor followed with a single, but Strider recovered and struck out Pete Alonso and Daniel Vogelbach to end the inning on his 29th pitch.

While deGrom retired the first nine hitters he faced with six strikeouts, the Mets broke through in the third against Strider. Nimmo led off the inning with a single. After Marte struck out, Lindor reached on a bloop single with a 63 mph exit velocity to left. Then after a good battle, Alonso singled off the third base bag to score both runners to make it 2-0. Strider walked Vogelbach and got Jeff McNeil to fly out for the second out, however Mark Canha squared up a fastball and drove it into the left center gap for a double to bring home two more to make it 4-0. That would be it for Strider as Dylan Lee came in and got Luis Guillorme to fly out to end the inning.

For the third time in the series, Atlanta’s starter failed to make it past the fifth inning. Strider allowed six hits, two walks and four runs in just 2 2/3 innings. He struck out five while throwing 79 pitches.

deGrom continued to mow through the Braves’ lineup striking out four of the six batters he faced in the fourth and fifth. He was perfect through five with 10 strikeouts.

The Mets added another run in the fifth as Jeff McNeil doubled, moved to third on a fly out and then came in to score on a wild pitch by Collin McHugh.

deGrom struck out Marcell Ozuna and Michael Harris to start the sixth before Adrianza walked to give the Braves their first base runner. Dansby Swanson followed with a two-run home run to right to make it 5-2.

That would end deGrom’s evening as he would give way to Joely Rodriguez who got Olson to ground out to first to end the inning.

There aren’t words to describe deGrom’s performance. He retired the first 17 hitters he faced with 12 coming via the strikeout. He threw 76 pitches over 5 2/3 innings.

The Braves got a leadoff single from Austin Riley to start the seventh. Ronald Acuña Jr., who was scratched from the starting lineup due to lower body soreness, pinch hit for Eddie Rosario and flew out to the wall in right center. Rodriguez then struck out Contreras and Grossman to strand the runner.

A.J. Minter and Raisel Iglesias put up zeroes in the seventh and eighth, but Edwin Diaz closed the door in the ninth to end the game.

Atlanta falls to 64-46 on the season and drop four of five in the series to fall 6.5 games back in the NL East standings. They have a much needed off day Monday before a two-game series begins Tuesday at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox.