Call the Mortician

Charlie Morton completely silenced the Mets’ bats, as the Mets were shut out in the rubber game of this three-game set in Atlanta 7-0. If one were to sum the game up in one sentence, it would be: DJ Stewart giveth, and DJ Stewart taketh away. On one hand, DJ Stewart had the only two hits off Charlie Morton this evening. On the other hand, DJ Stewart did not cover himself in glory on the base paths or in the field.

The Braves got on the board early, scoring in the first inning on three consecutive singles by Austin Riley, Matt Olson, and Marcell Ozuna. But Quintana was able to limit the damage to just one run and was assisted in the early innings by some timely double plays.

Meanwhile, Charlie Morton struck out eight of the first eleven batters he faced and set a season high for strikeouts with eleven in total through seven scoreless innings of work. The Mets didn’t get a hit until the fifth inning when DJ Stewart doubled with one out, but he was eventually picked off second base to end the inning. DJ Stewart giveth, DJ Stewart taketh away.

Quintana was effective through the first five innings, but seemed to run out of gas in the sixth. Austin Riley led off the inning with a single. Quintana bounced back to strike out Matt Olson for his fifth strikeout of the night, but then gave up an RBI double to Marcell Ozuna and consecutive singles to Sean Murphy and Michael Harris II and suddenly the Braves were up 3-0. That was the end of the night for Quintana. Phil Bickford came in the game and things did not improve. Bickford allowed a triple to Orlando Arcia which plated two more runs to break the game open. Though the hit was scored a triple, two runs scored on the play and Arcia was able to advance to third only because DJ Stewart stumbled trying to cut the ball off. DJ Stewart giveth, DJ Stewart taketh away.

The Braves added two more gratuitous runs off Bickford in the seventh on a two-run homer by who else but Ozuna, who absolutely pounded the Mets this series. The Mets put two men on base against Michael Tonkin in the eighth but failed to score and Kirby Yates pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for Atlanta. There was one bright spot in this game, however. Sean Reid-Foley made his first appearance on a big league mound since April 30, 2022 returning from Tommy John surgery and pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, striking out the first batter he faced. So that was something nice to watch in this otherwise garbage dump of a game.

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Win Probability Added

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Francisco Lindor, +1.7% WPA
Big Mets loser: Francisco Alvarez, -6.9% WPA
Mets pitchers: -10.3% WPA
Mets hitters: -39.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: DJ Stewart’s fifth inning double, +5.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Marcell Ozuna’s RBI double in the sixth, -11.5% WPA