Mets vs. Braves recap: A win in what was probably Terry’s last home game

The scene looked quite a bit different from the ones of the past couple of years. There weren’t many fans in the stands, there wasn’t a drop of champagne to be found anywhere, and there was just one Met out on the field interacting with the very few who had shown up and decided to stick around until the bitter end.

Travis d’Arnaud, whose September performance has been his best work since his injury-shortened-but-excellent 2015 campaign, came out of the dugout to greet a couple of gatherings of Mets fans, one near the dugout and the other The 7 Line out in their usual spot in center field, since the home portion of the 2017 season was officially over.

Where this team is headed next year, nobody really knows, but it seemed fitting that a player who looks very likely to be a part of it was the one to come out and say “see you later” on a team that might have a bunch of folks saying goodbye before next season comes around.

In this game against the Braves, d’Arnaud was one of the stars. As Robert Gsellman made his way through six innings of one-run ball, it was his catcher who turned that small deficit into a tie and then a lead. In the fourth, d’Arnaud hit what very well could have been a double play but was instead an error by Dansby Swanson, all of which officially went into the books as a fielder’s choice with a run batted in for d’Arnaud. That tied the game at one.

And in the bottom of the fifth, d’Arnaud singled sharply up the middle with runners on second and third, the latter of whom was Gsellman himself, to put the Mets up for the first time in the game. That two run lead would have been more than enough to make things hold up, too.

In the seventh, though, the Mets got some insurance. Dominic Smith, who like Amed Rosario did not start the final home game of the season, came up to pinch hit and hit a three-run bomb, continuing his trend of hitting nothing like his minor league self had in Las Vegas this year or Binghamton last year. He might be the poster boy for the 2017 baseball’s characteristics. And before that inning came to an end, Jose Reyes doubled to plate the Mets’ seventh and final run of the night.

Relievers Jamie Callahan, Chasen Bradford, and Paul Sewald threw one scoreless inning apiece to close things out and looked pretty good in the process. Depending on what or if the Mets spend on relievers this winter, guys like those three might have to look pretty good over the course of the 2018 season if there’s any hope of the Mets bouncing back in a big way.

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Travis d’Arnaud, +27.9% WPA, Robert Gsellman, +19.1% WPA,
Big losers: Mark Reynolds, -11.5% WPA, Brandon Nimmo, -11.1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Travis d’Arnaud singles in two runs to give the Mets the lead in the fifth, +23.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ozzie Albies singles to give the Braves a 1-0 lead in the third, -10.9% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +26.3% WPA
Total batter WPA: +23.7% WPA
GWRBI!: Travis d’Arnaud