The Braves are inventing new ways to lose games. They are either bad, or like tonight, just embarrassingly bad. Chris Sale pitched brilliantly and did all he could, but the the Braves offense once again comes up small in 3-2 loss to the Mets. The Braves have lost 5 games in a row, are 1-5 since the All-Star break, and their lead for the number one Wild Card spot is down to just half a game.
It wasn’t Chris Sale’s fault. He absolutely shoved. But once again the offense couldn’t support him enough to win a game.
Early on, it looked like the Braves might muster up a big offensive inning in the first. Austin Riley doubled off Luis Severino and moved over to third on a wild pitch. Marcell Ozuna then walked to put runners at first and third with one out. But Matt Olson and Travis d’Arnaud both struck out to end the threat and add to season-long offensive frustrations.
Sale produced a 1-2-3 bottom of the first to get the offense back up to the plate and if you believe in miracles, a run was actually scored. With two out and nobody on, Ramon Laureano singled and stole second to put a runner in scoring position. Orlando Arcia then blooped an RBI single to right-field to give Atlanta an early 1-0 lead.
After a scoreless bottom of the second from Sale and a scoreless top of the third from Severino, the Mets answered back in the bottom of third. Sale walked Tryone Taylor with 1-out and after striking out DJ Stewart, Fransisco Lindor launched a 2-run homer over the center-field fence to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.
From there Chris Sale dominated. After giving up the homer, Sale then recorded 14 outs over the next 14 hitters with the only runner coming off a Pete Alonso walk, who was immediately erased on a double play. Sale finished with 7.1 innings pitched, 2 hits allowed, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, and 9 strikeouts. His ERA for the season now sits at 2.68 with a 2.28 FIP and a 2.49 xFIP.
The Braves were at least able to tie the game up in the top of the sixth, to take Sale off the hook for a loss. Ozuna opened the inning with a leadoff walk, followed by a single from Olson to move Ozuna to third, and another single from d’Arnaud to drive him in.
Some years the first three hitters reaching would’ve resulted in a big offensive inning, where the Braves take control of the game and let Sale and the bullpen bring home a win. But this is the 2024 offense, so after the first three guys reached, the Braves went strikeout, strikeout, fly-out to quickly end the threat.
From there it was basically both teams putting up zeros on the scoreboard. The Braves got a man to second base in the inning off Edwin Diaz after an Eddie Rosario walk, and then Whit Merrifield pitch ran and stole second. But Merrifield got greedy and tried to steal third and was thrown out. The Braves went down once again without a run.
The real disgusting part of this game started with extra innings. Yes it got worse. The Braves decided to bunt their Manfred runner over to third in the top of the 10th, which they did successfully but then decided to try a squeeze play which they did very very unsuccessfully. Laurenao was picked off and, wait for it, the Braves went scoreless again.
And to cap off this night from hell, with two outs and two runners on in the bottom of the 10th, Laureano overran an easy pop fly that should’ve ended the inning, and instead dropped for the game winning hit. Mets won 3-2.
It was an embarrassing game, quite honestly.
Braves drop their 5th in a row, fall to 54-47 and now just a 1⁄2 game up on the Mets for the top Wild Card spot.
