Cespedes Great, Rest of Team Not So Much In Loss To Braves

With the Braves sending to the mound RHP Mike Soroka for his Major League debut, you knew this was going to be a rough game for the Mets.  The players change.  The managers change.  Even the uniforms have changed.  And yet, somehow, whenever a pitcher makes his Major League debut against the Mets, you know he is going to shut the Mets down.

For a brief second, it seemed like Soroka would be the exception.  The Mets had two on and two out, but Todd Frazier would ground out to end the threat.  From there, it was pretty smooth coasting for Soroka.  Even with he was in trouble, he would be aided by an Adrian Gonzalez double play grounder in the third and a Mets team who was 0-4 with RISP.

Really, the only blip from Soroka on the night was one pitch he threw to Yoenis Cespedes:

Even in this frustrating loss, the good news was Cespedes was still sizzling hot even after his thumb injury which forced him to leave Sunday’s game.  On the night, he was 3-4 with a run, homer, and an RBI.  In the field, he made a couple of nice plays, and he had one of those trademark Cespedes throws:

The problem with the Mets tonight was they needed more than just Cespedes.  Ideally, that would have come in the form of Noah Syndergaard.

It wasn’t to be as the Braves were very aggressive against Syndergaard with many attacking the first pitch.  To start the game, the Braves got consecutive hits from Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuna, Freddie Freeman, and Nick Markakis.  After that Syndergaard settled in a bit, and he gutted through six innings.  That’s what a true ace does.  Even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he finds a way.

Unfortunately, even with him figuring a way to get a quality start, the Mets just didn’t have it.  After Soroka, Dan Winkler, who was pressed into action after a Shane Carle injury got through the seventh.  In the eighth, Michael Conforto, Cespedes, and Jay Bruce failed to plate Asdrubal Cabrera, who had led off the inning with a single off A.J. Minter.

In the ninth, the Braves turned to Arodys Vizcaino for the save, and Frazier got it all started with a single that bounced just in front of the diving Markakis.  Then, the Braves did their best Luis Castillo impersonation with seemingly their entire 25 man roster incapable of fielding a pop up to right before second base.

Amed Rosario twice tried to butcher boy it, and he swung and missed both times.  He then just fanned on the third pitch of the at-bat.  Still, the runners would advance on a Vizcaino wild pitch thereby allowing Frazier to score on a Wilmer Flores RBI groundout.  With the Mets down 3-2, the game was then in Jose Reyes‘ hands.

In a surprise to no one, Reyes failed to deliver.

Game Notes: The Mets are now 7-9 since Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki went down.  Fortunately, Plawecki is a few weeks away.

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