Sunday was an anomaly in SunTrust Park. The Braves lost an uncommonly played game, 2-1 to the Mets, even as Jaime Garcia suffered another familiar fate.
For one of the few times in the new stadium, there were no home runs hit after a combined 67 were bashed there in the first 29.
Garcia is used to that, surrendering seven long balls in 77 innings, but none in seven innings of seven-hit ball in which he struck out nine Mets.
Unfortunately, the lefty also knows grief of Sunday’s sort, sunk once again by an Atlanta offense that scored one run in each of three straight losses to New York.
For all of the fine work submitted in his first season as a Brave, Garcia doesn’t have much to show but a team-best ERA of 3.16. That is an ill match for his 2-5 record. He had nothing to say about his support but battery mate Tyler Flowers, who had one of Atlanta’s six hits off New York starter Seth Lugo, did.
“We need to start picking him up; he’s doing his job,” the Braves catcher said. “He’s always got dynamic stuff. It’s tough to catch, tough to hit.”
The Braves lost on a sacrifice fly and an infield single before 30,368 fans, Garcia lamenting two pitches. He walked two, one intentionally, and his turn was good enough to win most days.
Problem was, unlike Lugo, Garcia didn’t score himself.
The Mets made the most of two of the hardest balls they hit, both by unlikely characters.
Garcia entered the game allowing lefties to hit just .212, only to have New York left fielder Michael Conforto, a lefty in a 9-for-55 (.164) skid, pound the game’s first pitch — a four-seam fastball — off the wall in left-center.
Juan Lagares moved Conforto up with a sacrifice bunt, and Wilber Flores put the Mets up 1-0 with a sac fly to left field.
“Tough one today,” the pitcher said. “I take a lot of pride in my job, and … I’ve got to do a better job with the leadoff guy. You’ve got to execute a pitch and it cost me the game today.”
After evening the score in the bottom of the second, when Dansby Swanson’s sacrifice fly to left pushed Flowers across after his lead-off double, the Braves quickly found themselves in arrears again.
In his first at-bat of the season, Lugo, who just came off the 60-day disabled list with elbow inflammation, drilled a one-out double over center fielder Ender Inciarte, who was playing especially shallow, in the third inning.
Garcia said, “I didn’t have conviction in the pitch.”
Braves manager Brian Snitker suggested that Lugo “kind of ambushed him there, which is what you tell a lot of [pitchers] to do — just go up and try to hit the first fastball. Yeah, it surprised us.”
Conforto grounded out to first to advance Lugo to third base and the Mets took a 2-1 lead on Lagares’ RBI infield single.
Atlanta third baseman Johan Camargo dove to keep the ball from getting through the hole, but he could not come up quick enough to throw out Lagares.
Other than Flowers’ double and a pair of singles by Nick Markakis, the Braves scarcely tracked Lugo after that. The Puerto Rican went seven innings, scattering six hits and striking out six to move to 2-0 against the Braves. The first win came last Sept. 11, also in Atlanta, which isn’t a surprise. The Mets have won 16 of their last 21 in Georgia.
“Give credit to Lugo,” said Swanson. “He made pitches when he had to, for the most part staying away from the middle of the plate.”
The Braves appeared to tie the score in the fifth. With the bases loaded Matt Adams grounded behind second base. With Inciarte crossing the plate, Mets shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera gathered and flipped the ball to second baseman Neil Walker to retire Matt Kemp at second.
First base umpire Mark Ripperger called Adams safe upon the relay, but Mets manager Terry Collins challenged and review was used to overturn the call, giving New York an inning-ending double play.
Arodys Vizcaino pitched a clean eighth for Atlanta and Ian Krol relieved Jose Ramirez in the ninth with the bases loaded and two outs.
The lefty wiggled out of the jam by inducing pinch-hitter Yoenis Cespedes (for Conforto) to pop out. A day earlier, Cespedes hit a ninth-inning grand slam to cement the Mets’ 6-1 win in the first game of a doubleheader sweep.
That gave Krol 17 straight retired batters over six appearances.
The Braves fluttered in the ninth, Flowers flying to center before Camargo and Swanson went down swinging against Addison Reed. The evening flight to Washington, where the Braves will play the Nationals for three games, was bound to be glum.
“He was really good,” Snitker said of Garcia. “You can’t ask for anything more. He’s pitching deep into the game, he’s out of trouble, making pitches when he has to … it’s a shame we couldn’t score runs. That’s the part he can’t control.”
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