NEW YORK – In a season full of frustrating losses, this one deserves its own place – at least until you decide to discard it from your memory. It turned your stomach. It left you speechless. It felt debilitating for a team searching for a spark.
It was another clear sign that these Braves are not right. And in a defeated clubhouse – a silent room – you could feel the frustration and agony.
This is not turning around yet.
The Braves lost to the Mets, 3-2, in 10 innings on Thursday at Citi Field. Atlanta has lost five in a row, which matches its longest losing streak of the season.
The 10th inning was particularly angering for fans. In the top half, Ramón Laureano and Jarred Kelenic both made mistakes on a crushing play. In the bottom half, Laureano overran the third out of the inning, which allowed the winning run to score.
And suddenly, the Braves’ lead for the National League’s top wild-card spot is only half a game. They play the team right behind them, the Mets, three more times this weekend.
Five observations:
1. With one out in the top of the 10th and Laureano at third base, Kelenic showed bunt. The Mets pitched out – a smart move considering Laureano aggressively broke for home and was caught in a rundown that made him the second out.
“I don’t know what that was, quite honestly. You’re going to have to ask (Kelenic and Laureano),” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of the play. “I didn’t have anything on. We normally don’t bunt in that situation, but I was trying to score a run. We had two pretty good hitters coming up, I thought. That’s unacceptable.”
Snitker was not happy. This was about as frustrated as he’ll get in front of cameras and recorders.
You cannot blame him. With the way his lineup has performed – not well enough – his club cannot afford these mistakes.
Kelenic took responsibility for it.
“I mean, I think it’s pretty simple,” Kelenic said. “I think I gotta swing the bat there. I was just trying to do too much. I think that’s all there is to it. I wanted to get the run in, and I was just trying to do too much. That’s all it was.”
On camera, Laureano said he thought it was a safety squeeze. Approached for clarification by two reporters later, he clarified that he didn’t see any sign from a coach. He simply saw Kelenic show bunt.
“He was trying to get the bunt down and they just called a pitchout,” Laureano said. “That’s a good strategy, and, yeah.”
There’s probably blame on both ends.
Laureano broke too aggressively toward home given that Kelenic didn’t make contact. But Kelenic shouldn’t have bunted there. The Braves had already bunted Laureano over to third, and Austin Riley and Marcell Ozuna – Atlanta’s two best hitters this season – were due up behind Kelenic.
“I was just trying to do everything I could to get the run in, and unfortunately I just couldn’t get a bat to it,” Kelenic said. “Like I said, I should’ve just swung the bat.”
With two outs, Kelenic grounded out to the pitcher. In extra innings, with a runner starting at second base, the visiting team must score in the top half because it’s a tall task for a pitcher to go out in a tie game and keep the runner at second from scoring.
But Pierce Johnson almost did that.
2. With the winning run at second, Johnson struck out J.D. Martinez before the Braves intentionally walked Pete Alonso. Then Johnson got a second strikeout.
One more out.
Jeff McNeil lifted a ball toward the right field corner. Laureano sprinted to his left, but overran it.
The ball fell.
The Mets won.
“Yeah, I overran it, but I should’ve caught that ball,” Laureano said. “No excuses. Let the team down today for sure. Gotta move on. Really no time to think too much about it, other than just sleep and new day tomorrow.”
Before this, Chris Sale had dominated over 7 1/3 scoreless innings. The Mets had two hits before McNeil’s game-winning knock. New York only had three baserunners through nine innings.
And then, it appeared as if Johnson had sent the game to the 11th inning.
“I put my head down a couple times just to run, to get a couple more feet, but I overran it,” Laureano said. “It’s crazy. Things like that don’t happen to me. I take full responsibility for that.”
3. As he prepared to enter the game as a pinch-runner, Whit Merrifield asked Snitker if the manager wanted him to be aggressive.
“Absolutely,” Snitker said.
This is where the Braves are at this moment. They haven’t consistently scored runs, so they must take some chances. Merrifield, signed this week, can run. “He’s a base-stealer,” Snitker said. So the Braves deployed him after Eddie Rosario worked a leadoff walk against closer Edwin Diaz to begin the ninth.
Immediately, Merrifield stole second base.
And then, with one out, he tried to steal third – and almost succeeded. He was called out, but the Braves challenged it.
As he slid into the bag, his arms went to both sides of the base. The tag came toward his chest. It appeared he might’ve been safe, but it was close. Too close. Not definitive.
“It just (looked) like he hit and stopped with the slide,” Snitker said. “Honestly, I think if they’d have called him safe, it would’ve stood there. That’s a tough one right there to get overturned when they can’t tell.”
When Merrifield tried to steal third, Laureano was batting. Orlando Arcia was due up. Then the order would turn over.
“If we’d have been in the top of the lineup or whatever, then we wouldn’t have even tried that,” Snitker said. “But we were trying to make something happen. And it looked like he kind of got stuck a little bit on his slide.”
The Braves scored twice. They squandered other chances.
They went 2-for-8 with men in scoring position. And for context on how much Atlanta’s pitching dominated, the Mets didn’t even have an at-bat with a man in scoring position through nine innings.
The outs on the bases in the ninth and 10th stung the Braves.
“You can’t do that,” Snitker said. “If you’re not scoring at all, you can’t make outs on the bases like that.”
4. The Braves knew this much: They wasted Sale’s performance.
“Yeah. I mean, it sucks,” Kelenic said. “Guy pitches his a– off like that and comes out, it ends this way. It sucks.”
They’re in a difficult stretch. Since the start of play on April 29, they’re 35-40.
They’re without Max Fried. And months ago, they lost Spencer Strider to season-ending elbow surgery.
Thursday marked the first time Sale pitched into the eighth since May 13, 2023. He went 30 starts in between that one and Thursday. He allowed two hits, but one was a two-run homer to Francisco Lindor. He retired 11 in a row to end his outing.
The Braves’ offense couldn’t make his effort count.
“We’re in these times, we need to win every time he gets in there,” Laureano said.
5. Sale, a World Series champion, is experienced. He’s seen the highs and lows.
Does a stretch like this just require patience?
“Yeah, I mean, especially when you know what we have in this clubhouse,” he said. “But there’s a certain time that you gotta get it going. Just hoping that it’s sooner rather than later.”
Stat to know
5 - Before this season, the Braves hadn’t lost five consecutive games since 2017. They’ve now done it twice over the last month and a half – once from June 7-12, and then now.
Quotable
“If you’re not scoring runs, man, you gotta play pretty much clean baseball.” - Snitker
Up next
The Braves on Friday will send Charlie Morton to the mound. Atlanta’s offense will face right-hander Kodai Senga, who will make his season debut. First pitch is at 7:10 p.m.
