You can look at any aspect from this game and say the Mets have to be better. That’s always the case when you lose a game. That goes double when you lose to what may be a historically bad Braves team. 

For starters, Matt Harvey regressed after three terrific starts. His location was off, and the Braves made him pay. Harvey’s final line was six innings, seven hits, four earned, two walks, and five strikeouts. Ultimately, it may not have mattered, but you have to scratch your head at Terry Collins starting Kevin Plawecki over Rene Rivera. 

Now, the Mets could’ve picked up Harvey tonight as they were facing former Mets prospect John Gant and his odd windup tonight: 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=r_8hONBmVSA

It looks difficult to hit, right?  Well, it hadn’t been the case this year with Gant having entered the game with a 5.63 ERA and a 1.750 WHIP. Naturally, Gant turned it around tonight pitching 6.2 innings allowing only two hits, one earned, and two walks with five strikeouts. 

Gant had the sinker working that makes him an intriguing prospect. It’s why the Braves did a good job getting him as one of the pieces in the Juan Uribe/Kelly Johnson trade. For what it’s worth Johnson was 0-2 with a walk against Gant. 

That’s how the night went for pretty much all of the Mets except Curtis Granderson who was 2-4 while scoring the only run of the game for the Mets in the first. There were a few stop and starts over the night, but the Mets were not cashing in on their opportunities. Most notably, the Mets had bases-loaded in the seventh, and Collins turned to Wilmer Flores, who couldn’t grip a bat yesterday, to pinch hit for Alejandro De Aza, who was originally announced go pinch hit for Antonio Bastardo, as the Braves brought the lefty Hunter Cervenka. Flores struck out as it’s hard to play with one hand. 

The offense and pitching wasn’t the Mets only failing. In the eighth, Yoenis Cespedes bobbled a ball in the outfield. The play allowed Chase d’Arnaud, Travis‘ brother, to score even though he had already stopped at third. It went down as an unearned run to Erik Goeddel. 

As if all of this wasn’t enough, James Loney made a bush league play on the bases that led to a game ending inning ending double play. On a Plawecki grounder, Loney slide into second. His slide wasn’t enough to break out the double play, so he lunged his elbow towards Jace Peterson‘s crotch. Even though Plawecki would’ve been safe by a mile, it was correctly ruled a game ending double play.

With that, Gant had his first career win, and Harvey had his major league leading ninth loss. It was a bad loss that was hard to watch. Across the board, the Mets need to be better than this.