ATLANTA — Coming off the first sweep of the season, Brandon Nimmo said it best.
“I don’t care what their record says,” the Mets’ team leader said Sunday. “[The Braves are a] very good team that can play very good baseball, pitch very well, hit very well, especially in their home ballpark. So we’re going to be going in there expecting a bulldog fight, ready for Game 1.”
The Mets have been absolutely dominant at Citi Field this season, and even on nights when they haven’t dominated, they mostly found ways to win. At least until this past weekend, when Clay Holmes was pulled too early in his Friday start and Paul Blackburn imploded in relief, Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning both fell apart in their respective starts and the bats couldn’t back them up.
Now, the Mets begin a stretch of 10 straight division games, starting with three in Atlanta, three in Philadelphia over the weekend, and four against the Braves at home next week.
They’ll open the week leading the Braves by 13.0 games in the NL East (45-27), but hold only a 2.5-game lead on the Phillies. Atlanta has never exactly been a place where the Mets have played their best baseball, and we’ll find out this week if last October’s dramatic finish to the regular season at Truist Park exorcised the demons.
Regardless of where the Braves are in the standings, the Mets can’t take their foot off the gas. It’s been a strange season for Atlanta, a team many picked to win the division. A talented, deep lineup with left-handers who mash, they aren’t producing runs at a high rate this season. Ronald Acuña Jr. returned from his second ACL tear picking up right where he left off, having posted a 1.179 OPS over his first 21 games with seven home runs and 13 RBI, yet he hasn’t been the cog that the Braves needed. Atlanta has gone just 7-14 since his return.
This will mark the first time Ronald has played in the same game against his younger brother, Mets infielder Luisangel Acuña. The younger Acuña is caught in a strange in-between state at the moment, with the Mets seeing a player who can help them win Major League games, but also a player who needs much more development.
A slick-fielding infielder who brings speed on the basepaths, Luisangel has been streaky with the bat, limiting him mostly to a bench role. The Mets typically get him into most games, be it as a late-game defensive replacement for Jeff McNeil or Brett Baty at second base, or as a pinch-runner, but the switches have been strange at times.
However, the team is adamant about getting him time. They don’t want a young, emerging sitting for multiple days at a time. If that was the case, they would send him back to Triple-A where he could play every day.
Instead, the team works with him daily whether he’s in the starting lineup or not, reinforcing the need to prepare the same every day and to keep him engaged. Acuña, and on occasion Baty and third baseman Vientos as well, get specific instruction with coaches in an effort to further his development at the big-league level.
Facing his brother could be what he needs to jumpstart his production.
The Mets had their three best starters lineup up before Kodai Senga was injured last week. Now, they’ll go with left-hander David Peterson in Tuesday’s opener, followed by right-hander Paul Blackburn in place of Senga on Wednesday, and Clay Holmes on Thursday night. Blackburn was lights-out against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his season debut, but has since given up seven earned runs in 4 1/3 in innings against the Colorado Rockies and Rays. He was shelled Friday night, giving up three straight hits before getting an out, followed by a two-run single.
Blackburn was supposed to go long in a piggyback sort of outing after Holmes went five, but the Mets replaced him with Max Kranick after that two-run single, and the right-hander couldn’t hold the inherited runners.
The Mets surprised baseball with their depth this season, but if that depth isn’t performing, Senga’s loss will be much more difficult to absorb.
The Braves will throw right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach, left-hander Chris Sale and right-hander Spencer Strider. With six division games, this week could be make-or-break for a team 8.0 games under .500 (31-39). A losing record this week could force them to have to offload expiring contracts at the trade deadline. But a good week could get them back into the mix.
The Mets understand they will face adversity throughout the season. Now is the time to show their mettle.
