ATLANTA — For a second time in as many games Tuesday night, the Mets’ depleted lineup managed to do what few other clubs have done lately, drive up the pitch count of one of Atlanta’s highly effective starters and get him out of the game during or immediately after the fifth inning — and take a lead in the process.
The only problem with that, though, is that the Atlanta bullpen is so, so good too. The Mets lost, 4-1, after three relievers combined for 4 1/3 scoreless, hitless innings.
Two-run home runs from Matt Olson and Adam Duvall powered their come-from-behind win and cut the Mets’ NL East lead back down to 1 1/2 games.
The middle-and-late-innings trio of Tyler Matzek (four outs), Collin McHugh (six outs) and A.J. Minter (three outs) finished it off. That lowered the bullpen’s ERA to 3.07, the best in the National League. Closer Kenley Jansen (irregular heartbeat) is expected back from the injured list for the series finale Wednesday.
Olson’s blast was a bit of a heartbreaker for lefthander David Peterson, who was working on maybe his best start of the season — a one-hit shutout into the sixth inning — until his last batter. Dansby Swanson had walked on a borderline ball four, one of several examples of plate umpire Andy Fletcher’s iffy strike zone in both directions. After Olson crushed a long fly ball down the rightfield line, leaving the sold-out Truist Park crowd hanging until it landed just foul, Olson hammered a fastball 426 feet to center for a sudden Atlanta lead.
That was Peterson’s 105th and final pitch. He finished 5 1/3 innings with two runs and two hits allowed, strikeout out nine and walking three.
He outpitched righthander Spencer Strider, a mustachioed, flame-throwing rookie who similarly was working on an inefficient shutout until the end of his outing. Francisco Lindor plated a run with a line drive to right (ruled a triple when Ronald Acuna Jr. whiffed on fielding it and it rolled to the wall). Spencer (2.56 ERA) struck out eight, walked three and gave up five hits.
The rotations lined up in such a way this series that each game came with a certain symmetry. The opener featured a pair of aces, with the same first name to boot, Max Scherzer versus Max Fried, with the perennial Cy Young Award candidate outperforming the first-time All-Star. The finale will include a quality, veteran, reliable mid-rotation starter from each club, Chris Bassitt for the Mets and Charlie Morton for Atlanta.
And this middle game saw a pair of younger starters, Peterson and Spencer, who didn’t open the year in the rotation but wedged their way in due to injury and/or underperformance from others — and have served a valuable role ever since.
“He's got a great arm,” manager Buck Showalter said of Strider before the game. “He’s kind of had his way with the league so far.”
But he didn’t quite have his way with the Mets. Much like they did to Fried the night before, the Mets made Strider work hard, getting his pitch count into triple digits in the fifth inning even as he limited the damage.
“You can see looking at tape — I watched a lot of it last night — he’s got the late slider that has some depth in it,” Showalter said. “You have to hurry so much, you can’t take until you hit. That’s what a lot of people miss about being selective. You have to hit until you take, and your take button has to be good. It’s harder to have that working against somebody (like Strider). He’s the poster child for the spin rate and velocity up in the zone. Everybody says, ‘Why are you swinging at that fastball up?’ Well, it’s not at one point.”
