Game Recap: Josh Donaldson Brings Rain as Braves Stifle Mets 2-1

Despite a dominant pitching performance from Steven Matz, the Mets lost their third straight game, and were swept by the Atlanta Braves with a 2-1 loss at Citi Field this Sunday afternoon. The club now holds a 67-63 record on the season, and they are two-and-a-half games back of a Wild Card berth. (Box Score)

Pitching

Matz tossed a solid outing for New York, limiting the Braves to just two hits and one earned run through a strong six innings pitched.

The left-hander threw 102 pitches, walking one and striking out seven. He lowered his season ERA to 4.06.

Paul Sewald relieved Matz to pitch the seventh. Josh Donaldson got the best of both Matz and Sewald, hitting leadoff homers against both Mets’ pitchers in the second and seventh innings for the Braves only two runs of the afternoon. The third baseman has 32 homers on the season – nine of those coming against the Mets.

Sewald stayed in to pitch the eighth and struck out the side to keep the Mets in it. He finished with four strikeouts, no walks, and raising his ERA to 3.00 on the year.

Justin Wilson took the rubber to close it out and surrendered a one-out walk to Freddie Freeman. He struck out Donaldson and Adam Duvall to end the inning, lowering his season ERA to a 2.22.

Mets’ pitchers struck out a combined 12 batters, allowed just three hits and two runs, while walking two. Steven Matz took the loss and now holds an 8-8 record in 2019.

Hitting

The Mets’ bats fell cold today as the offense was only able to muster up four hits through the first eight innings.

Michael Conforto singled and advanced to second on a fielding error by Adam Duvall to start off the second. Then J.D. Davis was walked to put runners on first and second, but Todd Frazier hit a ground ball to second base, with the pair out on the double-play and Conforto at third.

Juan Lagares was walked to put runners on the corners, but New York could not capitalize, with Rene Rivera grounding out to end the inning.

Consecutive leadoff singles in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings from Frazier, Amed Rosario, and Davis were all wasted.

The team was blanked until a ninth inning rally that fell just short of the win. Pete Alonso kicked off the bottom half of the frame with a double, and Davis singled on a line drive to center field with one out to put runners on the corners. Then, New York put a run on the board when Todd Frazier grounded into a force out that drove in Alonso, with Davis out at second and Frazier on first.

Wilson Ramos was brought in to pinch-hit for Juan Lagares with two outs and singled to right field. With runners on first and second, Joe Panik grounded out to end the Mets’ rally, coming up just short of the equalizing run.

Ramos has a league-best hitting streak of 19 games. This is the Mets’ longest streak since David Wright got a hit in 20 straight games from 2007-08, and the Mets’ longest single-season streak since Moises Alou went 30 straight in 2007, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.

Mets’ batters were hit by a pitch, walked three times, and got seven hits but were only able to score one run. The offense went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and left seven on base.

Up Next

The Mets have an off day on Monday before they open a three-game series with the Cubs on Tuesday evening in Queens. Marcus Stroman (7-11, 3.18 ERA) will take the mound facing off with Chicago’s Yu Darvish (4-6, 4.43 ERA).

The game will begin at 7:10 p.m. ET. It will be televised on SNY, MLB Network, and broadcast on WCBS 880 and ESPN 1050.