New York Mets starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco (59) works against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) (John Bazemore, AP)
ATLANTA — The last time the Mets were in Atlanta, their stars went dim. This time, the Mets’ biggest stars hit like stars early in the game, but by the end the pitching and hitting failed to come through.
After an hour and 40 minutes of a rainless rain delay to start a three-game NL East series, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso homered, with the latter extending his league lead to 22 on the season. But right-handers Carlos Carrasco and Drew Smith imploded in the sixth and the Mets lost 6-4.
The Mets managed only four hits in the game and all four came off Atlanta starter Bryce Elder, with three relievers rendering the Mets’ bats ineffective.
“We’ve got some guys who are capable of doing better, but we haven’t been able to string a lot together,” said manager Buck Showalter. “We got [Elder’s] pitch count up, but they have other good people they can bring in. Four hits is tough. Going to be tough to make that always stand up.”
Carrasco (2-3) started the sixth inning with a 4-1 lead, but a walk and back-to-back doubles helped the Braves close the gap to 4-3 and he was removed in favor of right-hander Smith before recording an out. Smith got Eddie Rosario to strike out on a high fastball for the first out, but he was burned by his breaking stuff later on.
Marcell Ozuna lined a double to right field with two outs to score Murphy and tie the game at 4-4. A wild pitch put him in position to score on Orlando Arcia’s grounder.
Eduardo Escobar, playing out of position at second base, dove to try and stop Arcia’s screaming ground ball at the edge of the dirt, but it got past him for an RBI single.
The damage was done.
Carrasco, who looked as though he had turned a corner after his last two starts, was tagged for four earned runs on six hits over five innings. He walked two and struck out four, and also gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies in the second inning.
“We know we’re going to have some ups and down,” Carrasco said. “We’ve just got to go out there and continue to play hard. We have a lot of games left and we go from there.”
Smith was charged with the fifth run. One of the Mets’ key high-leverage arms coming into the season, he now has an ERA of 3.74, but it’s 7.36 over his last eight appearances.
Elder (4-0) came into the game with a 1.92, ERA, the lowest among all qualified starters in the league. He didn’t give the Mets much to work with right away, striking out the side in the second inning. But Lindor and Alonso both homered off him in the third inning to put the Mets up 4-1.
Lindor was 1-for-15 over his last four games coming into this one. He walked in his first at-bat, then batting from the left side of the plate with one on and one out in the third inning, he lifted a slider from Elder into the right field stands for his 11th home run of the season. The long ball gave the Mets a 2-1 lead, and two batters later Alonso made it 4-1 with a two-run shot of his own.
Elder went six innings, giving up four earned on four hits, walking two and striking out eight.
The Mets didn’t have a hit past the fourth inning.
“The four hits,” Showalter said. “It’s tough for me to sit here and try to disparage the pitching when we just get four hits.”
Late in the game, Albies hit a line drive to the left-field corner off Adam Ottavino. Jeff McNeil bobbled the ball about three times, failing to make a circus-like play. Albies came into third standing up, then scored on what appeared to be a double play, but was overturned after the Braves challenged an out call at second base.
Last season, it felt like nearly everything went right for the Mets until the very end when they came into Atlanta and dropped the division. This season, the Mets can’t put all three aspects of their game together on a given night, no matter the location.
“It’s another year,” Lindor said. “It’s part of the game. I’m sure at some point in the year we’re going to start stringing hits together. We’re going to start driving in runs in high-leverage situations, and even in situations that are not really high-leverage, but when we can force them to use another bullpen arm. That’s going to happen. It’s coming. I know it’s coming at some point.”
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Originally published at Tribune News Service