Mets vs. Braves Recap: A new Met killer emerges in walkoff loss

The Mets lost yet another frustrating game to the Braves, and this time it was Dansby Swanson who was the main culprit. Ender Inciarte quickly became a thorn in the Mets’ side last season, and with Freddie Freeman on the DL, someone had to pick up the mantle of Met-killer.

Despite Julio Teheran’s ugly numbers this season he always seems to pitch the Mets tough, and this game was no exception. He only allowed one run in six innings of work and he struck out three. The only run he gave up was Curtis Granderson’s home run in the third. The Mets had rallies in both the fourth and sixth innings, but both times Teheran got T.J. Rivera to end the inning and prevented any runs from scoring.

Matt Harvey got the start for the Mets, and was not dominant in his five innings of work, but he was effective. His breaking pitches looked sharper and he got out of a bases loaded jam in the second. He got some help when Teheran hit a weak grounder that Wilmer Flores was able to field and get the out at home for the second out. Inciarte ended the inning when he lined out to center.

It was a hardworking inning for Harvey though, and the pitch count continued to rise so once again the bullpen was called upon in the sixth. Paul Sewald was the first to enter, and he immediately erased the slim lead when he gave up a two-run double to Swanson. The Mets chose to intentionally walk the struggling Danny Santana and pitch to Swanson who has caught fire since they last saw him. They played with fire and got burned, but they got the run back in the seventh when Travis d’Arnaud hit his seventh home run of year to tie the game 2-2.

Dansby Swanson was the main reason for the Braves’ victory but not the only reason. He only enhanced what the Mets’ glaring weakness is-defense. Swanson flashed the leather all night long, as did Inciarte. They both made highlight worthy plays whereas their counterparts on the Mets led to their downfall. There were multiple balls Cabrera could not get to at shortstop, which adds baserunners and makes pitch counts rise. Swanson hustled for a double in the ninth since Curtis Granderson was not replaced by Juan Lagares for defense. Granderson threw a one-hopper to second and Swanson was safe to set up the game-winning hit by pinch hitter Rio Ruiz off Josh Edgin.

It was yet another game where the little things added up to another loss and the losses keep mounting.

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
Talking Chop

Box scores

ESPN
MLB

Win Probability Added

Fangraphs.com

What’s WPA?

Big winners: Matt Harvey +29.8%, Curtis Granderson +15.7%
Big losers: Paul Sewald -30.5%, Josh Edgin -30.2%, Michael Conforto -12.8%, Lucas Duda -11.3%, Asdrubal Cabrera -11.0%, T.J. Rivera -10.1%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Travis d’Arnaud home run in seventh
Teh sux0rest play: Dansby Swanson double in sixth
Total pitcher WPA: -17.7%
Total batter WPA: -32.3%
GWRBI!: Rio Ruiz