Swept Away

By: Mike Rifkin

The New York Mets entered Atlanta with a one game lead in the NL East and if they won one game they controlled their own destiny. But worst case scenario happened as the Braves swept the Mets and not only lead the division by two games, but their magic number to clinch is one meaning one more Braves win or Mets loss and Atlanta wins the division for a fifth consecutive season. 

The Mets lined up their top three starters Jacob DeGrom, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt to pitch in the series and the three combined to go 14.1 innings pitched giving up 17 hits, 11 earned runs, 3 walks, 17 strikeouts, and 6 home runs. That is a ERA of 6.91 for your top three starters. But to only blame the starters is wrong, the offense has to share in the blame as well. The Mets two stars at the plate Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso went 5-23 with two walks in the series with 0 extra base hits. Outside of Jeff McNeil and Daniel Vogelbach (Sunday night) the Mets offense was awful. The Braves hit seven home runs in the three game series including Dansby Swanson and Matt Olson hitting one in each game, the Mets hit three. THE METS OFFENSE SCORED SEVEN RUNS in the entire series, the Mets scored the same amount of runs as the Braves hit home runs. 

The Mets based on win percentages were supposed to have a easy September schedule. But they went 6-8 against the Marlins, Cubs, Nationals and Athletics. That is where they lost the division, but the cherry on top is in a series fans thought it was impossible to get swept in they got swept. Now a team that could’ve used the first round bye to the Division Series now has to play a Padre team that is starting to figure somethings out. Plus if they had the bye the Mets could’ve lined up their pitching anyway they wanted. 

There are a lot of words to describe the Mets series in Atlanta. Unacceptable, pathetic, etc.. But know with Atlanta basically clinching the division the Mets can use the next four days to give guys like Lindor, Alonso, Nimmo days off to get ready for what the end goal is and attempt to make a run in the playoffs. Once the season is over is when you can point fingers at whoever you want, but the Mets will still be playing in the playoffs despite a terrible weekend in Atlanta.