From blown leads to playoff-clinchers, these are the highest and lowest Mets moments to take place in Atlanta’s new ballpark.
It’s no secret that Atlanta has been a source of nightmares for the Mets. At Turner Field from 1997-2016, the Mets had an abysmal 67-106 record, the franchise’s second-worst at any visiting stadium with over 100 games played. After Truist Park opened in 2017, it initially seemed the tide might be turning. During the first two seasons in the new ballpark, the Mets enjoyed a 10-9 record — but things soon fell off the rails once again, with the Mets going 16-32 since.
So with Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, Edwin Díaz, and David Peterson currently in Atlanta for the 2025 All-Star Game at Truist Park, let’s take a look back at the Mets’ top five worst (and best) moments in the Braves’ ballpark.
THE WORST MOMENTS
5. The Céspedes exodus (August 2, 2020)
Typically if someone says “the Mets’ bats didn’t show up today,” they mean it as a figure of speech. That wasn’t the case for this 4-0 shutout loss, during which Yoenis Céspedes was nowhere to be found. After missing the entirety of the 2019 season due to injury, Céspedes played in just eight games in 2020 until failing to show up at the ballpark for the Sunday afternoon matchup. His agents later revealed that Céspedes had decided to opt out of the 2020 season entirely for Covid-related reasons. At the time, the Mets were in the midst of a five-game losing skid, including blowing a six-run lead two days earlier.
The story was a PR fiasco, as news broke during the game that the Mets had checked his hotel room but could not find him or his gear. In a strange twist, it was later reported the Mets believed Céspedes took with him smoke machines and lasers which Carlos Beltrán — originally supposed to be the team’s manager before the Astros’ cheating scandal broke — had purchased for clubhouse celebrations at the start of the season.
It wouldn’t be the first time a Mets legend had an unceremonious farewell at Truist Park. On April 19, 2018, Matt Harvey was tagged for six runs in six innings in a 12-4 loss that ended up being the last of his 104 starts as a Met.
4. Twenty runs and twenty hits (June 30, 2021)
If you wanted to give up twenty runs in a game, how would you do it? Well, you’d start by surrendering a lead-off home run, which is exactly what David Peterson did while pitching to Ronald Acuña Jr. in the first inning. Then, you’d let someone on the opposing team have a career day — why not Ozzie Albies, who went 5-for-6 with two homers? You’d also give up twenty hits overall, including a trio to both Freddie Freeman and Austin Riley, and allow ten (yes, ten) different players to record an RBI. Then, after Peterson, Sean Reid-Foley, and Thomas Szpacuki had each imploded to make the score 14-2, you would bring in fourth outfielder Albert Almora with the bases loaded and nobody out to try and wrap up the ninth inning.
If you did all those things, then you’d be the 2021 Mets on June 30. The 18-run loss is tied for third-biggest in franchise history, outmatched only by a 26-7 loss against the Phillies in 1985 and a 25-4 slaughter at Washington in 2018 (not to be confused with the 23-5 loss a year earlier, in which Anthony Rendon went 6-for-6 with 10 RBI).
Believe it or not, the Mets actually led at one point in this game, as Pete Alonso hit a two-run home run off Max Fried in the top of the first inning. But from that point on, it was a night the team would very much like to forget.
3. Culberson and Camargo’s walk-offs (May 28-29, 2018)
Let’s talk about walk-offs. In the Mets’ first 16 games at Truist Park, they were walked off by the Braves a whopping four times — first on a slow ground ball that snuck through the shift, second on a walk-off bunt by Freddie Freeman, and then on a pair of homers on consecutive days in 2018.
On May 28, playing the first half of a day-night doubleheader, the Mets gave the ball to Jacob deGrom, who entered the afternoon with a ridiculous 1.54 ERA. When deGrom exited after seven innings, the Mets led 2-1, but the Braves quickly evened the score in the eighth with a sacrifice fly off Seth Lugo. Mets catcher Devin Mesoraco answered with a leadoff solo shot in the ninth to put the Mets back in front 3-2, but Lugo couldn’t hold on, leaving a slider up over the plate which utilityman Charlie Culberson sent over the left-center field fence.
After taking the nightcap, the Mets hoped to keep the momentum going on the 29th. New York held 4-0 and 6-2 leads, but the bullpen — having to cover more ground than expected after Steven Matz departed early with finger discomfort — couldn’t hang on. Jerry Blevins and Jacob Rhame coughed up the lead, and it was Gerson Bautista who allowed the walk-off homer in the ninth when third baseman Johan Camargo turned on a 99 mph fastball. It was a brutal gut punch which sent the 2018 Mets spiraling. At the time of Camargo’s walk-off, the team’s record was 26-26; a month later, it was 32-48.
2. The one that got away (June 8, 2023)
Of all the leads the Mets have blown and walk-offs they’ve surrendered at Truist Park, this one hurt the most. With Justin Verlander on the mound as the Mets looked to avoid a sweep in Atlanta, the Mets held 8-4 and 10-6 leads thanks to a Brandon Nimmo grand slam and Francisco Alvarez two-homer game. After the Braves added a run, former Met Travis d’Arnaud took Drew Smith deep to shrink the lead to 10-9. The Mets loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, but Omar Narváez and Mark Vientos both struck out against Jesse Chavez, failing to add an insurance run.
David Robertson was brought on to close. His first batter was Marcell Ozuna, who struck out looking. His second batter was Orlando Arcia, who with a 1-2 count took a curveball that appeared to clip the strike zone. On the next pitch, Arcia bit at a curveball below the strike zone, but was given a massive break by the first base ump, who ruled that he hadn’t swung. On the next pitch — having been gifted two extra lives — Arcia ripped a cutter into the stands to tie the game, leaving Robertson bent to the ground in frustration.
After the Mets failed to score in the top of the tenth, it was Ozzie Albies who delivered the fatal blow, launching a Tommy Hunter meatball off the Chop House for a three-run walk-off home run. It was the team’s sixth-straight loss, and one of the most demoralizing moments in recent Mets memory.
1. The sweep (September 30-October 2, 2022)
On August 7, 2022, the Mets held a 6.5-game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the N.L. East, having just taken four out of five games from their division opponents in dominant fashion at Citi Field. On September 30, with just six games left to play in the regular season, that lead had shrunk to one game as the Mets traveled to Truist Park for a three-game set with the top of their rotation lined up. If the Mets swept the Braves, they would be N.L. East champions for the first time since 2015. Even if the Mets won just one game, they would stay tied for the division lead, clinch the tiebreaker over the Braves, and control their own destiny. The only outcome they absolutely could not afford was to be swept.
The Mets led in all three games. On Friday night, with Jacob deGrom on the mound, a Luis Guillorme RBI single put the Mets ahead in the top of the second. But rare as the occasion seemed during his time in Flushing, Jacob deGrom proved human, allowing a trio of solo home runs to Austin Riley, Matt Olson, and Dansby Swanson as the Mets fell 5-2. On Saturday night, the Mets were up 2-1 in the fifth before the Braves’ bats struck once again, as Matt Olson and Dansby Swanson took Max Scherzer deep to secure a 4-2 victory. On Sunday night, the red-hot Swanson went deep in the first inning before Daniel Vogelbach and Jeff McNeil helped the Mets seize a 3-1 lead. But Chris Bassitt crumbled, allowing three runs in the bottom of the third inning thanks to two walks and a hit-by-pitch. Matt Olson later piled on with a solo shot to make it 5-3, giving both him and Swanson a home run in all three games of the series.
In the blink of an eye, the optimism which had filled the 2022 season gave way to traumatic flashbacks of the 2007 and 2008 collapses. The Braves went on to clinch the division two nights later, while the Mets failed to advance past the Padres in the Wild Card Series.
THE BEST MOMENTS
5. Ruben’s return (August 14, 2019)
What’s so special about a rain-delayed, 6-4 loss on a Wednesday night in August? The return of Ruben Tejada, of course.
After his six seasons with the Mets ended abruptly due to an infamous slide from Chase Utley in Game 2 of the 2015 NLDS, Tejada bounced from the Cardinals to the Giants to the Orioles until eventually returning to New York. You’re forgiven if you don’t remember his second stint with the Mets, which lasted just a week during the 2019 team’s pursuit of a Wild Card spot. Tejada went 0-for-4 in his first game, and 0-for-9 overall, but that didn’t stop this moment from being a personal favorite.
Plus, if you’re going to lose, you might as well lose to a friend. When Michael Conforto came up with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the ninth inning, he was struck out on three pitches by none other than former Met and current SNY commentator Jerry Blevins.
4. deGrom’s near-CGS (June 18, 2019)
During his second consecutive Cy Young campaign, Jacob deGrom had one of his most dominant outings in Atlanta. deGrom retired ten straight Braves on two separate occasions, fanning ten batters, walking none, and allowing just three hits through the first eight innings. Bidding for his second career complete-game shutout, deGrom finally faltered with one out in the ninth, giving up a solo home run to Freddie Freeman and another to Josh Donaldson (the latter on his 114th pitch of the night).
In a refreshing break from the norm during his Mets career, deGrom was given ample run support, as the Mets’ bats put up ten runs against Julio Teheran and the Braves. Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto, and Jeff McNeil all went yard, while deGrom helped himself with a leadoff double in the sixth.
The game marked the only time deGrom completed more than seven innings all season, and the second-to-last time deGrom would record an out in the ninth inning as a Met.
3. Alonso makes a splash (April 11, 2019)
It might feel difficult to remember a time before Pete Alonso was chasing down Darryl Strawberry’s franchise home run record, but entering the night on April 11, 2019, Alonso had just five homers to his credit. In his first game at Truist Park, the rookie Polar Bear came to bat in the bottom of the seventh with the Mets up 4-2. With lefty Jonny Venters on the mound and an 0-1 count, Alonso demolished a middle-middle fastball, sending it 454 feet at a scalding 118.3 mph. The ball sailed past the batter’s eye, landing in the water with a majestic splash.
It was a startling blast, and one that seemed to announce Alonso’s presence as one of the game’s premiere power hitters. In just his twelfth big league game, Alonso had recorded the hardest-hit home run by a Met in the Statcast era (since 2015), and the hardest-hit home run of any MLB player in that span not named Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton.
In Truist Park’s third season, Alonso had also become the first player to hit a ball into the water above the batters eye. The feat occurred once more that season — when Alonso did it again on August 8.
2. Brett Baty’s first swing (August 17, 2022)
Nine years after Zack Wheeler’s memorable major league debut in Atlanta, Brett Baty made his first start at Truist Park. The 22-year-old Baty, batting eighth and playing third base, came to the plate with a man on second and nobody out in the top of the second inning against Jake Odorizzi. Just as Gary Cohen finished describing the “phenomenal year” Baty was having in the minors, his first swing drove a hanging curveball over the right-field fence, sending his teammates in the dugout and his family in the stands into a frenzy.
Baty was just the fifth Mets player to homer in their first major league at-bat, joining Benny Ayala, Mike Fitzgerald, Kaz Matsui, and Mike Jacobs. For all the Mets’ struggles at Truist Park, Baty hasn’t stopped hitting there since, slashing .355/.394/.452 in eight career starts in Atlanta.
1. From 0-5 to OMG (September 30, 2024)
This one wasn’t particularly close.
On the final day of the 2024 regular season, the Mets played a highly unorthodox doubleheader in Atlanta. If the two teams split the games, they would each be postseason bound; if one team swept, the other would be eliminated. Backed by a dominant performance from Met-killer Spencer Schwellenbach, the Braves held a 3-0 lead entering the top of the eighth inning. That’s when the Mets’ 2024 magic finally kicked in, as the offense exploded for six runs punctuated by a Brandon Nimmo homer. But the Braves stormed back in the bottom of the inning, retaking the lead in heartbreaking fashion after Edwin Díaz failed to cover first base on a two-out grounder fielded by Pete Alonso.
So much about that game — the season-ending doubleheader, the postseason scenarios, the late lead changes — felt utterly bizarre. But something about it felt familiar, too. As evidenced by this article, from blown leads to walk-offs to season-killing sweeps, Truist Park was historically a place where ‘Ya Gotta Believe’ chants got chopped in half. This was a story Mets fans had seen too many times, and one that always seemed to end the same way.
So when Starling Marte hit a one-out single, Francisco Lindor deposited a first-pitch breaking ball over the right-center field fence, and Edwin Díaz got Travis d’Arnaud to ground out with a runner on scoring position to secure the win, it felt like nothing short of a miracle. For all the pain endured at Truist Park, this moment wasn’t just the exclamation mark on an unforgettable Mets season — it was arguably the franchise’s greatest regular season moment of the past decade.