After a hot start offensively Sunday, the Braves went cold for too long Sunday against the Mets and lost 10-9 at Truist Park in the third game of a four-game series.
A three-run first put the Braves up two after an inning, but they were dormant until scoring five in the ninth against Mets reliever Huascar Brazobán. Four of those five runs came on Drake Baldwin’s first career grand slam, an opposite-field shot that just went over the 375-foot sign in left field.
A Matt Olson double with two outs off Devin Williams brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Michael Harris II. After Olson went to third on a wild pitch, Harris beat out a chopper to first getting the Braves within 10-9.
Mauricio Dubón lined a single to left moving Harris to third then taking second on the throw back to the infield. Dominic Smith was the final hope, and struck out swinging.
The two teams are scheduled to play the finale of the series at 7:15 p.m. Monday.
With Martín Pérez on the mound to start the game for the Braves on Sunday, Francisco Lindor led off the afternoon by hitting a ball to third that Austin Riley booted. Lindor would later score on a one-out single to left by Bo Bichette.
The Braves responded immediately with a three-spot in the first. Harris ripped a two-run single up the middle, went to third on an errant pickoff throw by Mets starter Nolan McLean and scored on Mauricio Dubón’s groundball single up the middle past a drawn-in infield.
A.J. Ewing got one of those runs back in the second by hitting a solo home run off a 3-2 sinker from Peréz. Ewing’s fifth homer of the season went 408 feet into the Braves’ bullpen in right field.
Lindor then tied the game on an RBI single to left, and Juan Soto plated two more with a single to right that put the Mets up 5-3.
Both pitchers found their footing from there, and Pérez had retired eight in a row when Soto led off the fifth by lining a 1-0 sinker right back to the mound that caught Pérez flush on the left forearm. That ended Pérez’s day after 4 1/3 innings, five runs (four earned), six hits, two walks and 77 pitches.
Minus the first inning, McLean dazzled Sunday through six-plus innings. He recorded 13 outs against the final 15 hitters he faced with Braves shortstop Jim Jarvis, who got aboard via an error in the fifth, and Riley, who began the seventh with a fly ball to shallow right that fell to the grass, the only batters to reach in that stretch.
Tyrone Taylor gave the Mets (37-53) some insurance with a solo home run off Braves reliever Carlos Carrasco in the ninth. Bo Bichette put the game out of reach with a two-out, bases-loaded double off the wall in center field and, for good measure, Jared Young’s single to left plated two more.
That turned out to be the game-winner.
Sunday’s game was delayed by one hour and 47 minutes because of rain.