The Braves lead the National League in starting pitching WAR, at 5.6. With Max Fried and Spencer Strider starting the first two games of this series, you would think that the Mets’ best hope was to make them work and get to the bullpen early. And they did that. Max Fried wasn’t a factor on Monday night, and they made Strider top 100 pitches in the 5th inning and got him out of there with the Mets leading 1-0.
The problem is that the Braves also lead the N.L. in reliever war at 3.0. So getting to them two games in a row is a tough challenge. Bombs by Matt Olson and Adam Duvall made it 4-1 but it felt like 40-1 with the high end relievers like Tyler Matzek, Collin McHugh, and A.J. Minter working to close out the game. (Kenley Jansen, responsible for 0.6 of that 3.0 WAR, is still on the IL with an irregular heartbeat, but will be activated for the Mets/Braves rubber match.)
David Peterson pitched well, but just as the case was with Strider, his pitch count was elevated. Buck Showalter tried to get him through Matt Olson, who had a runner on because Andy Fletcher wanted to create abstract art with the strike zone the batter before.
Braves only runs this series have come on homers- their 1st tonight coming after a blown strike 3 call for the Mets 7th SP.
Meanwhile, the Mets 3rd string lineup wins game 1 vs their ace and knocks their rookie phenom out in the 5th.
Braves fans should be worried, not Mets fans
— TonyMetro (@TonyMetroMLB) July 13, 2022
Olson then would hit a long foul ball against Peterson, and it was only foul by about six inches. So what were the odds that he would hit an actual home run, right? Low, but never zero.
Matt to dead center! 💣#ForTheA | @mattolson21 pic.twitter.com/5YwErZCTif
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 13, 2022
Peterson caught too much of the middle and the Mets had lost their lead. Seth Lugo would then come in to finish off the 6th without further incident. So Buck went back to him in the 7th because, well, Lugo has always been good at being a two inning guy out of the pen. But instead, he threw a beach ball to Adam Duvall who volleyed it out of the yard and make it 4-1, and that was pretty much that.
It’s a tough chore to score against a good pitching staff, and damn near impossible without two of your core lineup presences in Jeff McNeil and Starling Marte. McNeil will not be back tomorrow. Who knows about Marte. But the plan has to be the same. Get to Morton and hope to exhaust the bullpen even though Minter regularly pitches on back-to-back days (11 appearances on back to back this season), and Will Smith and now Jansen available. In this instance, “Get to Morton” means score enough runs off him that Atlanta sports fans actually miss having the Atlanta Thrashers around.
Today’s Hate List
1. Andy Fletcher
2. Andy Pettitte
3. Andy LaRoche
4. Adam LaRoche
5. Andy Martino
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