The Mets saw their brief place at the top of the wild card standings slip further away in an ugly Sunday loss.
A series that started so promisingly came to an underwhelming close, as the Mets dropped the series finale to the Braves 9-2. After pulling in front of Atlanta in the wild card race on Friday night, two losses reset the standings to its state prior to this four-game set began, with the Mets sitting 1.5 games back of the WC1 spot.
Similar to the series as a whole, this game started well. David Peterson was dealing early and the Mets were wracking up hits against starter Reynaldo Lopez. None of those runners crossed the plate however (the Mets went 1-for-9 with RISP in this game), and Peterson eventually cracked, surrendering four runs in the fourth inning.
The rest of the game was largely academic. Peterson rebounded in the fifth and Alex Young tossed a clean sixth inning, but new Met Ryne Stanek gave up three runs in the seventh and Jake Diekman allowed two more in the eighth. A two-run home run from Pete Alonso prevented a shut out, but the Mets never made a legitimate run at this game after squandering their initial opportunities.
With the loss, the Mets are now 55-50, tied with Arizona for the WC3 spot (the Diamondbacks are currently playing the Pirates). They’ll start a three game set with the Twins tomorrow that will take them past the trade deadline on Tuesday before travelling to Anaheim later in the week.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Fangraphs
Big Mets winner: Tyrone Taylor, +11.8% WPA
Big Mets loser: David Peterson, -20.7% WPA
Mets pitchers: -24.0% WPA
Mets hitters: -26.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Matt Olson hits a three-run home run in the first, -21.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Tyrone Taylor doubles in the bottom of the third, +7.0% WPA