ATLANTA _ Right when J.D. Davis was tagged out, it felt like the Mets missed a major chance.
With runners on first and second in the sixth inning, Wilson Ramos singled and Mets third-base coach Gary DiSarcina sent Davis around third to home. The throw made it home before Davis, who attempted to hurdle Braves catcher Tyler Flowers. Flowers tagged out Davis, then the next batter, Amed Rosario, struck out to end the inning.
That missed opportunity, which came in a tie game, might have otherwise been trivial, but the Braves hung three in the bottom half and it doomed the Mets. New York lost the game, 7-2, and dropped a winnable series, which might sting for a bit as it heads to Chicago for four games.
The Mets would have had the bases loaded with one out for Rosario if Davis had been held at third. Instead, Josh Donaldson blasted a go-ahead, two-run home run and Ozzie Albies shot a ball to the wall to score another, ending Steven Matz's night.
That crucial Mets baserunning blunder came not long after Rosario drove in a run with a hit over Ronald Acuna Jr.'s head in center field _ Acuna got a bad read off the bat _ but was then thrown out trying to take third.
"We want to be aggressive," manager Mickey Callaway said about the Mets' baserunning. "We don't want to run into outs carelessly, but we want to be aggressive."
One of the worst parts about this loss for the Mets is that, through five, they had two runs on eight hits. The Braves, on the other hand, had two on two hits, the big one being Freddie Freeman's two-run homer in the first that came a half inning after the Mets scored the first run of the game.
Yet, the Mets walk out of SunTrust Park with a series loss. They might think things could have been different against the first-place Braves, who have now won 11 of their last 13 games.
Atlanta's Max Fried, who entered with a 4.11 ERA, held the Mets to two runs over six innings. A night after scoring in double digits, the New York bats had no answer. If you wondered whether Tuesday's win could be a turning point, you now have your answer.
Stephen Nogosek made his major league debut in the bottom of the eighth for the Mets. He allowed two hits _ a single and a dribbler _ and exited with two outs in the inning. Nick Markakis then smoked a two-run double off Daniel Zamora and the runs were charged to Nogosek. They also made a Mets comeback near-impossible as New York had just three outs with which to work.
A series loss against a hot Atlanta team isn't the worst outcome, but it may seem worse than it is because the Mets have four against the Cubs and another four against the Phillies before they return to Citi Field. And when they get back there, they host the Braves for a weekend.
This is the brutal part of the schedule. This is why it was so important for the Mets to handle Washington, Miami and Detroit, even St. Louis. The competition, as the Mets are finding out, isn't getting any easier.
