Met starting pitcher Jose Quintana struggled in the third inning surrendering 3 home runs as Ronald Acuna Jr,. Ozzie Albies, and Matt Olson all went yard to give the visiting Braves a 4-0 lead. Meanwhile, Charlie Morton, who the Mets hammered earlier in the year in a game in Atlanta, went a season high seven innings only allowing a solo homer to Francisco Lindor before handing the ball over to the Brave bullpen as closer Raisel Iglesias earned his 200th career save.
For Morton he changed his approach against the Mets using his cutter and fastball more than his legendary 12 to 6 curveball and it seemed to surprise the Met hitters. At the same time, Jose Quintana whom the Mets are relying on especially with the absence of Kodai Senga, struggled for the second straight start, The Met pitcher said after the game, “I simply need to execute better pitches as I can safely tell you that the Matt Olson homer was the result of a poor pitch. But I did feel I pitched OK after that. However, I need to command my pitches better and will continue to work on that.”
For the Mets, this week is a key stretch for them as this loss was a start of 10 straight games versus NL East opponents and because of the disjointed schedule that the MLB carved out where every team plays every other team in baseball, division games are fewer than ever before. As a consequence, this stretch is a key component in the Met season.
Pete Alonso acknowledged that after the game saying, “Yes they are important games but every one of our games has an importance as the goal is to win enough games to make the playoffs. That is the goal each of us know is the overall season goal.” I totally agree with Pete and in a 6 month season you strive to reach 90 wins which means you should shoot for at least a record of 3 games over 500 every month.
The poor Met start losing 5 of their first 6 games of the eason put them behind the eight ball so to speak. And that means to get to the pace of 6 games over 500 by the end of May is the short-term goal. That means they need to go 14-6 in the next 20 games to reach that plataeu and the schedule is tough facing teams like these Braves, Phis, and Guardians followed by a tough 10 game homestand versus the Giants, Dodgers, and Diamondbacks.
Clearly the stretch did not begin well last night but this squad has shown bounce-back ability this year and they need to tap into that to right a ship that has now fallen 1 game under the 500 mark. Today, Mets top prospect Christian Scott gets the ball versus Braves southpaw Max Fried who has dynamite stuff for the Braves but has been wildly inconsistent so far this season. Game time is 410 at CitiField.